Rapid arrest of axon elongation by brefeldin A: A role for the small GTP-binding protein ARF in neuronal growth cones
✍ Scribed by Hess, Douglas T. ;Smith, Deanna S. ;Patterson, Sean I. ;Kahn, Richard A. ;Skene, J. H. Pate ;Norden, Jeanette J.
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 219 KB
- Volume
- 38
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0022-3034
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✦ Synopsis
Members of the ADP-ribosylation
factor (ARF) family of small guanosine triphosphatebinding proteins play an essential role in membrane trafficking which subserves constitutive protein transport along exocytic and endocytic pathways within eukaryotic cell bodies. In growing neurons, membrane trafficking within motile growth cones distant from the cell body underlies the rapid plasmalemmal expansion which subserves axon elongation. We report here that ARF is a constituent of axonal growth cones, and that application of brefeldin A to neurons in culture produces a rapid arrest of axon extension that can be as-cribed to inhibition of ARF function in growth cones. Our findings demonstrate a role for ARF in growth cones that is coupled tightly to the rapid growth of neuronal processes characteristic of developmental and regenerative axon elongation, and indicate that ARF participates not only in constitutive membrane traffic within the cell body, but also in membrane dynamics within growing axon endings.