Commissural neurons transgress the CNS/PNS boundary in absence of ventricular zone-derived netrin 1.

During the development of the central nervous system (CNS), only motor axons project into peripheral nerves. Little is known about the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control the development of a boundary at the CNS surface and prevent CNS neuron emigration from the neural tube. It has previously been shown that a subset of spinal cord commissural axons abnormally invades sensory nerves in Ntn1 hypomorphic embryos and Dcc knockouts. However, whether netrin 1 also plays a similar role in the brain is unknown. In the hindbrain, precerebellar neurons migrate tangentially under the pial surface, and their ventral migration is guided by netrin 1. Here, we show that pontine neurons and inferior olivary neurons, two types of precerebellar neurons, are not confined to the CNS in Ntn1 and Dcc mutant mice, but that they invade the trigeminal, auditory and vagus nerves. Using a Ntn1 conditional knockout, we show that netrin 1, which is released at the pial surface by ventricular zone progenitors is responsible for the CNS confinement of precerebellar neurons. We propose, that netrin 1 distribution sculpts the CNS boundary by keeping CNS neurons in netrin 1-rich domains.