Axon-bound vesicles (green) caught in a plus-end trap help form a new growth cone. A minus-end trap keeps pinocytic vesicles (red) out of the way.

Microtubules set traps for vesicles in injured axons, according to Erez et al. (page 497). The traps are positioned to maximize membrane deposition into a new growth cone.

After an axon is severed, a new growth cone rapidly expands while the cell's overall surface area decreases. Erez et al. examined this membrane budgeting in severed Aplysia neurons. They found that vesicles traveling out from the cell body help swell a new growth cone ∼100 μm back from the cut site, perhaps to avoid the most heavily damaged membrane at the tip.

These membrane-donating vesicles are tugged along by a motor toward microtubule plus ends. Normally, nearly all plus ends point toward the end of the axon. But the group...

The Rockefeller University Press
2007
The Rockefeller University Press
2007
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