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‘Stop and go’ movement of cytoskeletal polymers in axons
Author(s) -
Brown A.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of neurochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.75
H-Index - 229
eISSN - 1471-4159
pISSN - 0022-3042
DOI - 10.1046/j.1471-4159.81.s1.50_2.x
Subject(s) - cytoskeleton , neurofilament , axoplasmic transport , tubulin , cytosol , biophysics , neuroscience , microtubule , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , biology , cell , biochemistry , immunology , enzyme , immunohistochemistry
Axonal cytoskeletal and cytosolic proteins are synthesized in the cell body of nerve cells and transported along axons by slow axonal transport, at average rates on the order of millimeters per day. My laboratory has recently succeeded in observing the movement of two cytoskeletal proteins, neurofilament protein and tubulin, in cultured nerve cells using live‐cell fluorescence imaging. Both proteins move in the form of filamentous structures, which appear to represent single cytoskeletal polymers. Contrary to expectations, these polymers move very rapidly, at rates on the order of micrometers per second, but their movements are also infrequent and highly asynchronous. Our data suggest that rate of movement in slow axonal transport is actually fast, but that the overall rate is slow because the rapid movements are interrupted by lengthy pauses.