Independent developmental regulation of migratory granule neurons and their cerebellar ligand in the mouse

Interactions between migratory granule neurons and the developing molecular layer of the mouse cerebellum were examined using an in situ binding assay. Single cell suspensions of postnatal granule neurons specifically adhere to unfixed frozen cerebellar tissue sections. We investigated the influence of postnatal age of granule neurons and of tissue on this interaction. Granule neurons from P10 (the time of peak migratory activity) bind preferentially to the molecular layer. Premigratory granule neurons, P5, do not bind age-matched cerebellar tissue. Postmigratory granule neurons, P14 and older, adhere to the molecular and internal granular layers of age-matched and older cerebellar tissue but not to younger tissue. These binding patterns are most simply explained as a single receptor-ligand system in which both elements exhibit independent developmental regulation. Although granule neurons lose the ability to bind with increasing age, the molecular layer ligand retains its capacity for this interaction into adulthood, long after normal migration has ceased.