Neuroscience Center, Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology, The University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA.
Dynamic regulation of neuronal cytoskeletal machinery in response to extracellular cues enables distinct changes in neuronal development in the cerebral cortex. In this issue of Neuron, three related studies on doublecortin-like kinase, a microtubule-associated protein related to doublecortin, by Shu et al., Koizumi et al., and Deuel et al., provide evidence that doublecortin-like kinase is essential for proper neurogenesis, neuronal migration, and axonal wiring.