A bead of NGF (gray) attracts high levels (red) of β-actin mRNA.

Transcripts are drawn to—or repulsed by—extracellular signals, report Willis et al. Unique sets of mRNAs, the findings show, are brought to or warded off from axon sites in contact with neuronal growth factors.

Axons have their own translational machinery that allows them to respond to stimuli rapidly. Stores of transcripts lie in wait near axonal ribosomes, ready to be translated when called upon. The make-up of these stores, the new results reveal, can be changed locally by extracellular cues.

To measure store changes, the group first took an inventory of messages that are translated in injured axons, which ramp up local protein synthesis. Using this baseline, the authors then calculated transcript changes at sites also exposed to extracellular growth factors.

Growth-promoting neurotrophins caused some nearby transcript levels to increase and others to decrease....

The Rockefeller University Press
2007
The Rockefeller University Press
2007
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