| Growth cone interaction with a native target | ||
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Externally applied beads stick to the membrane and are transported by the movement of internal actin filaments.
Growth cone is transiently treated with cytochalasin
which turns off actin filament assembly. Note that linear
bead transport depends on actin filament assembly.
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A growth cone undergoes a permissive target interaction with a neurite in cell culture. After articulating a right turn, the growth cone rapidly moves down the track defined by the neurite. This axon bundling process is called fasiculation | |
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| apCAM is a homophilic Ig Superfamily molecule related to vertebrate NCAM. Here, a glass bead coated with recombinant apCAM is being used as a pseudo-target that elicits a response similar to growth cone interactions with native target substrates. |
Two growth cones interact in vitro. Color coded actin flow vectors are shown. |
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A bead coated with an Ig superfamily cell adhesion molecule
was placed on a neuronal growth cone and restrained with a micro-needle to allow traction forces between the bead and growth cone to develop. DIC image of stucture and fluorescently tagged actin filament are shown on right and left, respectively. |
Actin flow dynamics quantified for the growth cone target interaction shown to the left. Color velocity code as above. |