Journal
JOURNAL OF CELL SCIENCE
Volume 127, Issue 20, Pages 4409-4419Publisher
COMPANY OF BIOLOGISTS LTD
DOI: 10.1242/jcs.149815
Keywords
Axon; Polarity; Neuron; Migration; Membrane traffic; FRAP
Categories
Funding
- Flanders Fund for Scientific Research [FWO G 0.666.10N]
- Belgian Governmen [IAP 7/16]
- Flemish Government Methusalem Grant
- Spanish Ministry of Science [SAF2010-14906]
- Innovation Ingenio-Consolider [CSD2010-00045]
- MIUR-PRIN Program
- EMBO fellowship [369.00-2007]
- Hercules Type 1 grant [AKUL/09/037]
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Final morphological polarization of neurons, with the development of a distinct axon and several dendrites, is preceded by phases where they have a non-polarized architecture. The earliest of these phases is that of the round neuron arising from the last mitosis. A second non-polarized stage corresponds to the bipolar neuron, with two morphologically identical neurites. Both phases have their distinctive relevance in the establishment of neuronal polarity. During the round cell stage, a decision is made as to where from the cell periphery a first neurite will form, thus creating the first sign of asymmetry. At the bipolar stage a decision is made as to which of the two neurites becomes the axon in neurons polarizing in vitro, and the leading edge in neurons in situ. In this study, we analysed cytoskeletal and membrane dynamics in cells at these two prepolarity stages. By means of time lapse imaging in dissociated hippocampal neurons and ex vivo cortical slices, we show that both stages are characterized by polarized intracellular arrangements. However, the stages have distinct temporal hierarchies: polarized actin dynamics marks the site of first polarization in round cells, whereas polarized membrane dynamics precedes asymmetric growth in the bipolar stage.
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