Follow Your Nose: Axon Pathfinding in Olfactory Map Formation

Two new studies report how discrete identities of olfactory sensory neurons are converted into a spatial map of axonal connections (Imai et al., 2006 and Serizawa et al., 2006). They find that levels of cAMP signals derived from olfactory receptors (ORs) can direct targeting of axons along an axis, and that ORs and neural activity regulate expression of adhesion/guidance molecules in mosaic patterns that can sort axons into discrete locations.