Wiring Specificity of Neural Circuits

Developing brains use a limited number of cell-surface proteins to instruct wiring specificity of a much larger number of neurons and synapses. How is this feat achieved? How do different cell-surface proteins work together to assemble a functional circuit? To address these questions, I will first describe our work using the fly olfactory circuit, focusing on a recent study in which we rewired the circuit by altering the combinatorial code of cell-surface proteins.
I will then discuss functions of similar cell-surface proteins in instructing wiring specificity of neural circuits in the mouse brain.