Axon formation, extension, and navigation: only a neuroscience phenomenon?

Understanding how neurons form, extend, and navigate their finger-like axonal and dendritic processes is crucial for developing therapeutics for the diseased and damaged brain. Although less well appreciated, many other types of cells also send out similar finger-like projections. Indeed, unlike neuronal specific phenomena such as synapse formation or synaptic transmission, an important issue for thought is that this critical long-standing question of how a cellular process like an axon or dendrite forms and extends is not primarily a neuroscience problem but a cell biological problem. In that case, the use of simple cellular processes such as the bristle cell process of Drosophila can aid in the fight to answer these critical questions. Specifically, determining how a model cellular process is generated can provide a framework for manipulations of all types of membranous process-containing cells, including different types of neurons.