A commissure () is the location at which two objects abut or are joined. The term is used especially in the fields of anatomy and biology. * The most common usage of the term refers to the brain's commissures, of which there are five. Such a commissure is a bundle of commissural fibers as a

tract Tract may refer to: Geography and real estate * Housing tract, an area of land that is subdivided into smaller individual lots * Land lot or tract, a section of land * Census tract, a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census ...

that crosses the midline at its level of origin or entry (as opposed to a decussation of fibers that cross obliquely). The five are the anterior commissure, posterior commissure, corpus callosum, commissure of fornix (hippocampal commissure), and habenular commissure. They consist of fibre

s that connect the two cerebral hemispheres and span the longitudinal fissure. In the spinal cord there are the

anterior white commissure The anterior white commissure (ventral white commissure) is a bundle of nerve fibers which cross the midline of the spinal cord just anterior (in front of) to the gray commissure (Rexed lamina X). A delta fibers (Aδ fibers) and C fibers carryin ...

, and the

gray commissure The grey commissure is a thin strip of grey matter that surrounds the central canal of the spinal cord and, along with the anterior white commissure The anterior white commissure (ventral white commissure) is a bundle of nerve fibers which cros ...

. ''Commissural neurons'' refer to neuronal cells that grow their

axons An axon (from Greek ἄξων ''áxōn'', axis), or nerve fiber (or nerve fibre: see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), is a long, slender projection of a nerve cell, or neuron, in vertebrates, th ...

across the midline of the nervous system within the brain and the spinal cord. * ''Commissure'' also often refers to cardiac anatomy of heart valves. In the heart, a commissure is the area where the valve leaflets abut. When such an abutment is abnormally stiffened or even fused,

valvular stenosis A stenosis (from Ancient Greek στενός, "narrow") is an abnormal narrowing in a blood vessel or other tubular Organ (anatomy), organ or structure such as foramina and canals. It is also sometimes called a stricture (as in urethral stricture) ...

results, sometimes requiring

commissurotomy A commissurotomy () is a surgical incision of a commissure in the body, as one made in the heart at the edges of the commissure formed by cardiac valves, or one made in the brain to treat certain psychiatric disorders. Patients with scleroderma, a ...

. * The term may also refer to the junction of the upper and lower lips (see labial commissure of mouth). * It may refer to the junction of the upper and lower mandibles of a

bird's beak The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, ...

, or alternately, to the full-length apposition of the closed mandibles, from the corners of the mouth to the tip of the beak. * It may refer to the nasal and temporal meeting points of the upper and lower eyelids (the medial and lateral canthi). * In female genitalia, the joining points of the two folds of the labia majora create two commissures - the anterior commissure just anterior to the prepuce of the clitoris, and the posterior commissure of the labia majora, directly posterior to the frenulum of the labia minora and anterior to the perineal raphe. In biology, the meeting of the two valves of a brachiopod or clam is a commissure; in botany, the term is used to denote the place where a fern's laterally expanded vein endings come together in a continuous marginal sorus.

References

Anatomy Biology terminology Parts of a bird beak {{biology-stub

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References