Ephrins are not only unattractive

Abstract

The ephrins and their Eph receptors have emerged as repulsive cues for growing axons during the past decade. Since then, great effort has been made to understand the significance and mechanisms of Eph-mediated repulsion. More recently, it has become clear that ephrins perform in many more developmental processes than the repulsion-dependent establishment of topography in the nervous system. As numerous studies suggest functions more akin to adhesion or attraction than to repulsion, increasing attention is now being paid to the intracellular mechanisms that might explain this duality.