The mutation affects a receptor for a signaling molecule called netrin that is involved in one of the best - studied pathways in developmental neuroscience, she says, but all of that work has been done in animals such as mice, worms, and fruit flies. (sciencemag.org)
Animal studies have suggested that during brain development, netrin tells growing nerve fibers to cross over to the other side of the brain, and Rouleau speculates that the message might not always get through in people with only one working copy of the DCC receptor. (sciencemag.org)
This gene encodes a receptor for netrin. (sciencemag.org)