Axonal growth of cortical neurons does not require paxillin

Axon growth is an essential cellular process during neural development, and its dysregulation contributes to numerous neurodevelopmental disorders. During axon growth, extracellular signals direct neurons to extend projections that connect with their synaptic targets. Paxillin is a key member of adhesion sites that control motility by linking the intracellular actin cytoskeleton to the extracellular matrix. Paxillin also binds to the cytoskeletal protein, tubulin. However, little is known about the role of adhesion proteins in neurons. Here, we use conditional paxillin knockout mice to investigate how loss of paxillin in pyramidal cortical neurons affects developing neuron morphology. Surprisingly, loss of paxillin in pyramidal cortical neurons caused no change in axon length or soma area between control (PxnF/F) and conditional paxillin knockout (PxnF/F; Emx1-Cre) mice at basal conditions. Following brain-derived neurotrophic factor stimulation, the loss of paxillin resulted in no change in soma area or axonal {beta}-tubulin levels, but did result in a significant increase in axon length, as compared to control. Finally, the corpus callosum size was not significantly different between PxnF/F and PxnF/F; Emx1-Cre animals. In summary, these data suggest that paxillin is not required for axonal growth during neural development.