JCB logo
PeproTech: Cell Culture Supplements
  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents
Published online February 11, 2008
doi:10.1083/jcb.200707042
The Journal of Cell Biology, Vol. 180, No. 3, 619-632
The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525 $30.00
© 2008 Witte et al.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF, 6190K)
Right arrow PPT slides of all figures
Right arrow Supplemental Material Index
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new content in the JCB
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Witte, H.
Right arrow Articles by Bradke, F.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Witte, H.
Right arrow Articles by Bradke, F.
Related Collections
Right arrowRelated In this Issue article
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

Article

Microtubule stabilization specifies initial neuronal polarization



Harald Witte, Dorothee Neukirchen, and Frank Bradke

Axonal Growth and Regeneration, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, 82152 Martinsried, Germany

Correspondence to F. Bradke: fbradke{at}neuro.mpg.de

Axon formation is the initial step in establishing neuronal polarity. We examine here the role of microtubule dynamics in neuronal polarization using hippocampal neurons in culture. We see increased microtubule stability along the shaft in a single neurite before axon formation and in the axon of morphologically polarized cells. Loss of polarity or formation of multiple axons after manipulation of neuronal polarity regulators, synapses of amphids defective (SAD) kinases, and glycogen synthase kinase-3β correlates with characteristic changes in microtubule turnover. Consistently, changing the microtubule dynamics is sufficient to alter neuronal polarization. Application of low doses of the microtubule-destabilizing drug nocodazole selectively reduces the formation of future dendrites. Conversely, low doses of the microtubule-stabilizing drug taxol shift polymerizing microtubules from neurite shafts to process tips and lead to the formation of multiple axons. Finally, local stabilization of microtubules using a photoactivatable analogue of taxol induces axon formation from the activated area. Thus, local microtubule stabilization in one neurite is a physiological signal specifying neuronal polarization.

Abbreviations used in this paper: ANOVA, analysis of variance; CRMP-2, collapsin response mediator protein 2; DIV, days in vitro; EB3, end-binding protein 3; GSK-3β, glycogen synthase kinase-3β; MAP, microtubule-associated protein; MT, microtubule; PAR-1, partitioning defective-1; PI3K, phosphoinositide 3-kinase; SAD, synapses of amphids defective; TSA, trichostatin A.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Related In this Issue article

Helping an axon go long
Mitch Leslie
J. Cell Biol. 2008 180: 445. [Full Text] [PDF]



This article has been cited by other articles:



  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents