Abnormal dendritic complexity is a shared feature of many neurodevelopmental disorders associated with neurological defects. Here, we found that the actin-crosslinking protein filamin A (FLNA) is overex-pressed in tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) mice, a PI3K-mTOR model of neurodevelopmental disease that is associated with abnormal dendritic com-plexity. Both under-and overexpression of FLNA in wild-type neurons led to more complex dendritic ar-bors in vivo, suggesting that an optimal level of FLNA expression is required for normal dendritogenesis. In Tsc1 null neurons, knocking down FLNA in vivo pre-vented dendritic abnormalities. Surprisingly, FLNA overexpression in Tsc1 null neurons was dependent on MEK1/2 but not mTOR activity, despite both path-ways being hyperactive. In addition, increasing MEK-ERK1/2 activity led to dendritic abnormalities via FLNA, and decreasing MEK-ERK1/2 signaling in Tsc1 null neurons rescued dendritic defects. These data demonstrate that altered FLNA expression increases dendritic complexity and contributes to pathologic dendritic patterning in TSC in an mTOR-independent, ERK1/2-dependent manner. INTRODUCTION