Our paper, “Oligodendrocyte calcium signaling promotes actin-dependent myelin sheath extension,” was published today in Nature Communications. We were curious about the mechanisms by which oligodendrocytes respond to properties of neurons (including activity) to build and tune myelin sheaths. In this first chapter, we find that oligodendrocyte calcium signaling is required to achieve normal sheath morphology during development, opening up the possibility that this same mechanism may be used to control myelin dynamics during learning and/or be perturbed in neurodegenerative diseases. This was a wonderful collaboration with the labs of Bal Khakh (UCLA) and Uri Manor (UCSD) with important contributions from many Z-lab members, including Husniye, Madeline, Nick, Mable, Graham, and Alex.
Congrats to Manasi and the whole team! Open access version here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1038/s41467-023-44238-3