A quantitative study of synapses on motor neuron dendritic growth cones in developing mouse spinal cord

The proportion of synaptic contacts occurring on dendrites as well as on dendritic growth cones and filopodia was determined from electron micrographs of developing mouse (C57BL/6J) spinal cord. Comparable areas of the marginal zone adjacent to the lateral motor nucleus were sampled from specimens on the 13th-16th days of embryonic development (E13-E16). At the beginning of this period, synapses upon growth cones and filopodia comprise about 80% of the observed synaptic junctions, but this proportion decreases with developmental time so that in E16 specimens growth cone synapses account for slightly less than 30% of the synaptic population. Conversely, at E13, synapses upon dendrites comprise less than 20% of the total number of synapses, but increase with developmental time so that they account for about 65% of the synaptic population of E16 specimens. From these data, we suggest the following temporal sequence for the formation of synaptic junctions on motor neuron dendrites growing into the marginal zone. New synapses are initially made upon the filopodia of dendritic growth cones. A synaptically contacted filopodium expands to become a growth cone while the original growth cone begins to differentiate into a dendrite. This process is repeated as the dendrite grows farther into the marginal zone so that synapses originally made with filopodia come to be located upon dendrites. This speculation is briefly discussed in relation to the work and ideas of others concerning synaptogenesis and dendritic development.