Neuronal tiling is a phenomenon in which multiple arbors of

neuron A neuron, neurone, or nerve cell is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, electrically excitable cell (biology), cell that communicates with other cells via specialized connections called synapses. The neuron is the main component of nervous ...

s innervate the same surface or tissue in a nonredundant and tiled pattern that maximizes coverage of the surface while minimizing overlap between neighboring arbors.Grueber, W. B. & Sagasti, A. Self-avoidance and tiling: Mechanisms of dendrite and axon spacing. Cold Spring Harb. Perspect. Biol. 2, a001750 (2010) Hence,

dendrite Dendrites (from Greek δένδρον ''déndron'', "tree"), also dendrons, are branched protoplasmic extensions of a nerve cell that propagate the electrochemical stimulation received from other neural cells to the cell body, or soma, of the ...

s of the same neuron spread out by avoiding one another ( self-avoidance). Moreover, dendrites of certain types of neurons such as class III and class IV dendritic arborization neurons avoid dendrites of neighboring neurons of the same type (tiling), whereas dendrites of different neuronal types can cover the same territory (coexistence).1. Jan, Y.-N. & Jan, L. Y. Branching out: mechanisms of dendritic arborization. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 11, 316–28 (2010). One good example of this organization is the

cell bodies The soma (pl. ''somata'' or ''somas''), perikaryon (pl. ''perikarya''), neurocyton, or cell body is the bulbous, non-process portion of a neuron or other brain cell type, containing the cell nucleus. The word 'soma' comes from the Greek '' σῶ� ...

of virtually all retinal cell types which are arranged as independent, nonrandom mosaics that maximize the distance between neighbouring cells. Elucidating the mechanisms of process spacing during development is therefore relevant for understanding principles of tissue organization inside and outside of the nervous system.

References

Cell biology Animal developmental biology {{neuroscience-stub