Inhibition of Netrin-Mediated Axon Attraction by a Receptor Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase

During axon guidance, the ventral guidance of the Caenorhabditis elegans anterior ventral microtubule axon is controlled by two cues, the UNC-6/netrin attractant recognized by the UNC-40/DCC receptor and the SLT-1/slit repellent recognized by the SAX-3/robo receptor. We show here that loss-of-function mutations in clr-1 enhance netrin-dependent attraction, suppressing ventral guidance defects in slt-1 mutants, clr-1 encodes a transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase (RPTP) that functions in AVM to inhibit signaling through the DCC family receptor UNC-40 and its effector, UNC-34/enabled. The known effects of other RPTPs in axon guidance could result from modulation of guidance receptors like UNC-40/DCC.