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Microtubule behavior in the growth cones of living neurons during axon elongation

To understand how microtubules are generated in the growth cone, we have imaged fluorescently tagged microtubules in living frog embryonic neurons. The neurons were labeled by injecting rhodamine-labeled tubulin into the fertilized egg and explanting the neurons from the neural tube. Microtubules ex...

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Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Rockefeller University Press 1991
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2289161/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1918145
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description To understand how microtubules are generated in the growth cone, we have imaged fluorescently tagged microtubules in living frog embryonic neurons. The neurons were labeled by injecting rhodamine-labeled tubulin into the fertilized egg and explanting the neurons from the neural tube. Microtubules extend deep into the growth cone periphery and adopt three characteristic distributions: (a) dispersed and splayed throughout much of the growth cone; (b) looped and apparently contorted by compression; and (c) bundled into tight arrays. These distributions interconvert on a time scale of several minutes and these interconversions are correlated with the behavior of the growth cone. We observed microtubule growth and shrinkage in growth cones, but are unable to determine their contribution to net assembly. However, translocation of polymer form the axon appears to be a major mechanism of generating new polymer in the growth cone, while bundling of microtubules in the growth cone appears to be the critical step in generating new axon. Neurons that were about to turn spontaneously generated microtubules in the future direction of growth, suggesting that orientation of microtubules might be an important early step in neuronal pathfinding.
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spelling pubmed-22891612008-05-01 Microtubule behavior in the growth cones of living neurons during axon elongation J Cell Biol Articles To understand how microtubules are generated in the growth cone, we have imaged fluorescently tagged microtubules in living frog embryonic neurons. The neurons were labeled by injecting rhodamine-labeled tubulin into the fertilized egg and explanting the neurons from the neural tube. Microtubules extend deep into the growth cone periphery and adopt three characteristic distributions: (a) dispersed and splayed throughout much of the growth cone; (b) looped and apparently contorted by compression; and (c) bundled into tight arrays. These distributions interconvert on a time scale of several minutes and these interconversions are correlated with the behavior of the growth cone. We observed microtubule growth and shrinkage in growth cones, but are unable to determine their contribution to net assembly. However, translocation of polymer form the axon appears to be a major mechanism of generating new polymer in the growth cone, while bundling of microtubules in the growth cone appears to be the critical step in generating new axon. Neurons that were about to turn spontaneously generated microtubules in the future direction of growth, suggesting that orientation of microtubules might be an important early step in neuronal pathfinding. The Rockefeller University Press 1991-10-02 /pmc/articles/PMC2289161/ /pubmed/1918145 Text en This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.rupress.org/terms). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 4.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
spellingShingle Articles
Microtubule behavior in the growth cones of living neurons during axon elongation
title Microtubule behavior in the growth cones of living neurons during axon elongation
title_full Microtubule behavior in the growth cones of living neurons during axon elongation
title_fullStr Microtubule behavior in the growth cones of living neurons during axon elongation
title_full_unstemmed Microtubule behavior in the growth cones of living neurons during axon elongation
title_short Microtubule behavior in the growth cones of living neurons during axon elongation
title_sort microtubule behavior in the growth cones of living neurons during axon elongation
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2289161/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1918145