Small‐Molecule‐Mediated Axonal Branching in <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i>

Abstract

An in vivo system for monitoring small-molecule-mediated neuronal branching has been developed by using C. elegans. Growth-promoting compounds can be detected by visual inspection of GFPlabeled cholinergic neurons, as axonal branching occurs following treatment with neurotrophic agents. Investigation of the structure-activity relationship of the neurotrophic natural product clovanemagnolol (1) led us to a comparable chemically edited derivative.