Kittock, C., Anvery, N., Misra, M. (2026). The conserved microtubule-associated protein Mini Spindles promotes dendrite branching and limits terminal branch elongation in Drosophila class III and IV dendritic arborization neurons. MicroPubl Biol 2026(): .
FlyBase ID
FBrf0264780
Publication Type
Research paper
Abstract
Microtubule dynamics influence neuron morphogenesis. We investigated the role of the conserved microtubule-associated protein Mini Spindles (Msps) in the morphogenesis of branched dendrite arbors using Drosophila melanogaster larval class III and class IV dendritic arborization neurons as two models of branch organization. In both classes, knocking down msps expression reduced dendrite branching but increased terminal dendrite length. In msps [RNAi] class IV da neurons, dendrite growth failed to scale in proportion to increasing larval size between the second and third instar. These results suggest that Msps is required for the dynamic expansion of dendrite arbors during periods of rapid organismal growth.
