In our experiments prolonged knockdown of p130Cas ultimately leads to increased apoptosis levels and reduced OPC numbers in culture. A role of p130Cas in cell death was proposed before and it has been shown in cancer cells that inhibition of Src kinases as well as overexpression of dominant negative p130Cas mutants induce apoptosis. Interestingly it was shown that p130Cas is cleaved by activated Caspase 3 at the onset of apoptosis leading to disassembly of focal adhesion complexes and interfering with CP-690550 survival signaling from the extracellular matrix. Moreover, Fyn kinase plays an important role in integrindependent survival signaling in oligodendrocytes suggesting that p130Cas and Fyn contribute to the same pathway in oligodendroglial cells. We analyzed the viability and apoptotic status of Oli-neu cells which were used in our spreading, process thickness and migration assays and did not see any differences between p130Cas siRNA and control siRNA-treated cells under the same experimental conditions. It is thus unlikely that the morphological changes observed in our cell spreading assays and migration phenotype after p130Cas knockdown in Oli-neu cells result from the initiation of apoptosis. The apoptosis assay in Oli-neu cells was performed 6 h after replating the siRNA-treated cells, because this was the latest time point used in our experiments with Oli-neu cells. As we did not observe a significant induction of apoptosis of p130Cas siRNA-treated cells at that time point, we exclude any apoptotic effects to have occurred earlier during the spreading assay or process thickness analysis, which were performed 30 minutes and 4 h after replating the cells, respectively. Reassuringly, the MTT viability assay and LDH cytotoxicity assay revealed no effect of p130Cas knockdown 30 minutes or 6 h after replating the Oli-neu cells. The induction of apoptosis observed in post-mitotic primary oligodendrocytes was not expected to occur in a comparable manner in the immortalized Oli-neu cell line. In conclusion, we have confirmed expression of the adaptor molecule p130Cas by oligodendrocytes, shown it to be phosphorylated by Fyn kinase and to be involved in oligodendroglial process outgrowth, migration and apoptosis. Our results may stimulate further research regarding the role of p130Cas in the regulation of oligodendrocyte differentiation and survival, as well as myelination or remyelination in pathological conditions. Grasslands are a major part of the global ecosystem, covering 37% of the Earth’s terrestrial area. Herbivory is a fundamental driver of grassland plant community composition. Nearly all grasslands worldwide have been grazed by populations of wild and domestic herbivores, such as cattle, horses, sheep, deer, rabbits, and kangaroos.