Transient expression of a surface antigen on a small subset of neurones during embryonic development

During development, neurones find and interconnect with their targets in a remarkably precise way. The unfolding of neuronal specificity involves a series of highly specific recognition events which are likely to be coordinated by the spatial and temporal expression of many different surface molecules. At early stages of development, neuronal recognition occurs most dramatically at the tips of growing axons, at growth cones and their filopodia. Previous studies on the grasshopper embryo suggest that specific filopodial contacts lead to the stereotyped patterns of selective axonal fasciculation; these results support the 'labelled pathways' hypothesis which predicts that the different neighbouring axon fascicles in the embryonic neuropil within filopodial grasp are differentially labelled. To uncover the molecular labels on fasciculating embryonic axons, we screened 2,000 monoclonal antibodies generated against the embryonic neuroepithelium. Here we describe three antibodies which reveal surface antigens whose temporal and spatial expression during embryogenesis correlate with the predictions of the model. In particular, the Mes-2 antibody recognizes an antigen which is transiently expressed on the surface of only 4 out of approximately 1,000 neurones in each metathoracic hemisegment during a short period of embryogenesis. The growth cones of two of these neurones fasciculate in the periphery and innervate the same target. Moreover, they transiently express the Mes-2 surface antigen while doing so.