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J. Cell Biol.,
Volume 143, Number 4, November 16, 1998 1077-1086
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60612
Nerve growth depends on the delivery of cell
body-synthesized material to the growing neuronal
processes. The cellular mechanisms that determine the
topology of new membrane addition to the axon are
not known. Here we describe a technique to visualize
the transport and sites of exocytosis of cell body-
derived vesicles in growing axons. We found that in
Xenopus embryo neurons in culture, cell body-derived
vesicles were rapidly transported all the way down to
the growth cone region, where they fused with the
plasma membrane. Suppression of microtubule (MT)
dynamic instability did not interfere with the delivery
of new membrane material to the growth cone region;
however, the insertion of vesicles into the plasma membrane was dramatically inhibited. Local disassembly of
MTs by focal application of nocodazole to the middle
axonal segment resulted in the addition of new membrane at the site of drug application. Our results suggest
that the local destabilization of axonal MTs is necessary
and sufficient for the delivery of membrane material to
specific neuronal sites.
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