Abstract
The neuromuscular junction is the complex and highly specialized region of nerve-muscle contact that serves as the conduit for nerve-muscle communication. The precisely choreographed series of cellular and molecular events serve to initiate, maintain, and allow persistence of this specialized synapse throughout the lifespan of the organism. A likely sequence of events in the development of the neuromuscular junction begins with the nerve terminals releasing agrin and neuregulins into the basal lamina. AChRs and other muscle synaptic proteins accumulate at the motor endplate during this initial period of nerve contact, along with reorganization of the cytoskeletal elements in the vicinity of the nuclei beneath the innervated region of muscle fiber membrane. The reorganized cytoskeleton and remodeled architecture of junctional folds in the synaptic muscle fiber membrane then serve as a scaffold for the recruitment of additional membrane proteins including those involved in binding extracellular matrix molecules.