Also known as IPR001134, Netrin, netrins
thumb|240px|Netrin 1 knockout disrupts thalamocortical projections topography in the mouse brain. From Powell et al., 2008. Netrins are a class of proteins involved in axon guidance. They are named after the Sanskrit word "netr", which means "one who guides". Netrins are genetically conserved across nematode worms, fruit flies, frogs, mice, and humans. Structurally, netrin resembles the extracellular matrix protein laminin.
~18 min read
thumb|240px|Netrin 1 knockout disrupts thalamocortical projections topography in the mouse brain. From Powell et al., 2008. Netrins are a class of proteins involved in axon guidance. They are named after the Sanskrit word "netr", which means "one who guides". Netrins are genetically conserved across nematode worms, fruit flies, frogs, mice, and humans. Structurally, netrin resembles the extracellular matrix protein laminin.
Netrins are chemotropic; a growing axon will either move towards or away from a higher concentration of netrin. Though the detailed mechanism of axon guidance is not fully understood, it is known that netrin attraction is mediated through UNC-40/DCC cell surface receptors and repulsion is mediated through UNC-5 receptors. Netrins also act as growth factors, encouraging cell growth activities in target cells. Mice deficient in netrin fail to form the hippocampal comissure or the corpus callosum.
Discovered by embedding cosine similarity (sentence-transformers MiniLM, 384-dim).