Nomdedeu-Sancho, GemmaAlsina i Español, Berta2022-11-142022-11-142023Nomdedeu-Sancho G, Alsina B. Wiring the senses: Factors that regulate peripheral axon pathfinding in sensory systems. Dev Dyn. 2023 Jan;252(1):81-103. DOI: 10.1002/dvdy.5231058-8388http://hdl.handle.net/10230/54829Sensory neurons of the head are the ones that transmit the information about the external world to our brain for its processing. Axons from cranial sensory neurons sense different chemoattractant and chemorepulsive molecules during the journey and in the target tissue to establish the precise innervation with brain neurons and/or receptor cells. Here, we aim to unify and summarize the available information regarding molecular mechanisms guiding the different afferent sensory axons of the head. By putting the information together, we find the use of similar guidance cues in different sensory systems but in distinct combinations. In vertebrates, the number of genes in each family of guidance cues has suffered a great expansion in the genome, providing redundancy, and robustness. We also discuss recently published data involving the role of glia and mechanical forces in shaping the axon paths. Finally, we highlight the remaining questions to be addressed in the field.application/pdfeng© 2022 The Authors. Developmental Dynamics published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Association for Anatomy. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1002/dvdy.523Axon guidanceCell signalingCranial gangliaPlacodesSensory systemsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess