Critical roles for the netrin receptor deleted in colorectal cancer in dopaminergic neuronal precursor migration, axon guidance, and axon arborization.

DCC (deleted in colorectal cancer), a receptor for the axon guidance cue netrin-1, is highly expressed by mesencephalic dopaminergic (DA) neurons during development; however, the contribution of DCC to DA development remains largely uncharacterized. DA neurons in ventral mesencephalic nuclei also express UNC5 homologue netrin receptors from late embryogenesis to adulthood, raising the possibility that DA axons could be attracted or repelled by netrins. Examining newborn dcc null mice, we report that loss of DCC function results in profound alterations of DA circuitry, including DA progenitor cell migration defects, reduced numbers of DA cells in midbrain nuclei, an anomalous DA ventral commissure, malformed DA innervation of the ventral striatum, and reduced DA innervation of the cerebral cortex. Caspase-3 activation was detected in inappropriately localized DA cells, consistent with apoptosis contributing to reduced cell numbers. Dcc heterozygous mice express reduced levels of DCC protein. Although less severely disrupted than dcc nulls, newborn and adult dcc heterozygotes also have fewer DA neurons in ventral mesenscephalic nuclei. Despite the reduced numbers of DA neurons, newborn dcc heterozygotes and nulls exhibit similar DA innervation density as wild-type littermates in the nucleus accumbens core, and adult dcc heterozygotes exhibit increased DA innervation in medial prefrontal cortex. A trend towards increased innervation of medial prefrontal cortex was detected in newborn dcc heterozygotes, but did not reach statistical significance, suggesting that the increase in adult heterozygotes results from enhanced DA arborization during postnatal development. Consistent with the hypothesis that DCC regulates DA axonal projections, disrupting DCC function in culture inhibits netrin-1 induced DA axon extension and axon branching. Furthermore, disrupting DCC function in isolated DA neurons grown as micro-island cultures reduces the number of autaptic synapses per cell. We conclude that DCC regulates appropriate precursor cell migration, axon guidance, and terminal arborization by DA neurons.