THE UNIQUE AND SHARED PROPERTIES OF NEURONAL GROWTH CONES THAT ENABLENAVIGATION AND SPECIFIC PATHFINDING

The neuronal growth cone has as one of its primary functions the role of guiding the elongating neurite to its appropriate target. The event s during pathfinding require that the neuronal growth cone responds to particular molecules in the environment by making appropriate changes in the behavior of the growth cone. This paper discusses the role of intracellular calcium as a signalling system mediating these responses . The specific roles of the growth cone filopodia in acting as antenna e in advance of the motile growth cone are discussed in the context of calcium mediated pathfinding events.