β-Spectrin holds the line Available to Purchase

α- and β-Spectrins connect actin filaments of the cytoskeletal network to integral plasma membrane proteins and have structural roles in red blood cells, and also in protein targeting and membrane formation in non-erythroid cells. On p. 273, Greg Bashaw and colleagues demonstrate a role forβ-Spectrin in repulsive midline axon guidance and in the maintenance of axon connections in the Drosophila embryonic CNS. In β-Spectrin mutant embryos, axons inappropriately cross the midline; however, these defects are rescued by expressing a form of β-Spectrin that carries mutated Ankyrin and Plekstrin Homology (PH) domains, indicating that axon repulsion occurs independently of these domains. β-Spectrin may contribute to Slit-Robo-mediated axon repulsion during growth cone migration,as a dose-dependent genetic interaction is demonstrated betweenβ-Spectrin and the Slit-Robo pathway. As such, β-Spectrin could, the authors speculate, play a key role in maintaining the membrane domains that contain guidance molecules, providing a link between the signalling pathways...