Mechanical Forces in the Nervous System Play a Corrective Role - Neuroscience News

Summary: Synaptic pruning occurs as a result of mechanical tearing, a new study reveals.

Researchers headed by Dr. Sebastian Rumpf from the Institute of Neuro- and Behavioural Biology at Münster University (Germany) have now found the mechanism of neurite severing.

In the fruit fly, a large number of neurites are removed through pruning during the pupal phase, or metamorphosis.

“Surprisingly little is known about the role of mechanical forces in the nervous system,” say lead authors Dr. Rafael Krämer and Dr. Neele Wolterhoff.

However, effects caused by potential “severing” enzymes could always be better explained in different ways, such that the mechanism remained unclear.

Severing occurs during periods of increased pupal morphogenetic tissue movements, which exert mechanical forces on the destabilized dendrites.