Growth cones: The mechanism of neurite advance

✍ Scribed by P. R. Gordon-Weeks

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 593 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0265-9247
• DOI: 10.1002/bies.950130506

✦ Synopsis

assembly of the other filaments. Also, they are more stable than the other two in that they 'turnover' more slowly.

Summary

Growth cones are the highly motile structures found at the tips of growing axons and dendrites (neurites), which extend from neurones, during the development of the nervous system. They function both as detectors and transducers of extrinsic guidance cues and as regions where the neurite cytoskeleton is assembled. Without concerted neurite assembly, advance cannot occur. Assembly of the neurite cytoskeleton in growing neurites chiefly involves microtubule assembly at the growth cone. Some of the factors that may influence microtubule assembly in growth cones are becoming apparent and include post-translational modification of tubulin itself and microtubule associated proteins, particularly tau and MAPlB.