ArticleGenes & development2014
Astrocytes engage unique molecular programs to engulf pruned neuronal debris from distinct subsets of neurons.
Article in Genes & development, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 137 papers.
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Who cites it
137 citing papers in PubMed, 269 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Written in the Stars: Astrocyte Biology From Evolution to Disease.Acta physiologica (Oxford, England) · 2026Review
- The Repair Manual of a Fruit Fly Brain.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Innate immune signaling and functions in astrocytes.Nature immunology · 2026Review
- Dynamic morphological staging of Drosophila pupal development.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- NimA promotes cell adhesion at the blood brain barrier of the Drosophila nervous system.EMBO reports · 2026Article
- Regulating glial morphogenesis: insights fromFrontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Glia Preserve Their Own Functions While Compensating for Neighboring Glial Cell Dysfunction.Glia · 2025Article
- ALife science alliance · 2025Article
- Radial astroglia cooperate with microglia to clear neuronal cell bodies during zebrafish optic tectum development.Cell reports · 2025Article
- Modeling neurodegeneration in the retina and strategies for developing pan-neurodegenerative therapies.Molecular neurodegeneration · 2025Review
- Complex non-Markovian dynamics and the dual role of astrocytes in Alzheimer's disease development and propagation.Quantitative biology (Beijing, China) · 2025Article
- Experience-dependent control of synaptic remodeling and structural plasticity by glia.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2025Review
- Article
- Molecular profiling of invertebrate glia.Glia · 2025Review
- Review
- Astrocyte regulation of critical period plasticity across neural circuits.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2025Review
- Article
- Glial-derived TNF/Eiger signaling promotes somatosensory neurite sculpting.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2025Article
- Astrocyte-dependent local neurite pruning in Beat-Va neurons.The Journal of cell biology · 2025Article
77 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Precise neural circuit assembly is achieved by initial overproduction of neurons and synapses, followed by refinement through elimination of exuberant neurons and synapses. Glial cells are the primary cells responsible for clearing neuronal debris, but the cellular and molecular basis of glial pruning is poorly defined. Here we show that Drosophila larval astrocytes transform into phagocytes through activation of a cell-autonomous, steroid-dependent program at the initiation of metamorphosis and are the primary phagocytic cell type in the pupal neuropil. We examined the developmental elimination of two neuron populations-mushroom body (MB) γ neurons and vCrz⁺ neurons (expressing Corazonin [Crz] neuropeptide in the ventral nerve cord [VNC])-where only neurites are pruned or entire cells are eliminated, respectively. We found that MB γ axons are engulfed by astrocytes using the Draper and Crk/Mbc/dCed-12 signaling pathways in a partially redundant manner. In contrast, while elimination of vCrz⁺ cell bodies requires Draper, elimination of vCrz⁺ neurites is mediated by Crk/Mbc/dCed-12 but not Draper. Intriguingly, we also found that elimination of Draper delayed vCrz⁺ neurite degeneration, suggesting that glia promote neurite destruction through engulfment signaling. This study identifies a novel role for astrocytes in the clearance of synaptic and neuronal debris and for Crk/Mbc/dCed-12 as a new glial pathway mediating pruning and reveals, unexpectedly, that the engulfment signaling pathways engaged by glia depend on whether neuronal debris was generated through cell death or local pruning.
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