Vesicle-Microtubule Interaction and Fast Axonal Transport

这项工作的重点是表征与膜结合囊泡表面和/或微管亚基晶格相关的重要运动相关蛋白。这些蛋白质的亚细胞分布，称为肌动蛋白和维囊蛋白，将在光镜和电子显微镜水平上确定，与维囊蛋白或维囊蛋白特异性相关的蛋白质的身份将通过亲和层析确定。这两种方法都将利用标准的生化和免疫学技术。在比较的方法中，将分析线粒体，以确定细胞器的哪些特征允许它在轴突中双向移动。这一点很重要，因为到目前为止，运动性研究主要集中在轴突中单向运动的轴浆囊泡上。最后，选择酪蛋白和vesikin的cDNA克隆进行研究。这些实验的意义在于，它们将增加我们对运动分子的理解，这些运动分子参与了细胞内粒子运动的重要细胞生物学现象，特别是快速轴突运输。

The work focuses on the characterization of important motility related proteins associated with the surface of membrane bound vesicles and/or with the subunit lattice of microtubules. The subcellular distribution of these proteins, called kinesin and vesikin, will be determined at the light and electron microscopic levels, and the identity of proteins that associate specifically with vesikin or kinesin will be determined by affinity chromatography. Both of these approaches will utilize standard biochemical and immunological techniques. In a comparative approach, mitochondria will be analyzed to determine what characteristics of that organelle allow it to move bidirectionally in axons. This is important because up to now motility studies have focused on axoplasmic vesicles that move unidirectionally in axons. Finally, cDNA clones of kinesin and vesikin will be selected and studied. The significance of these experiments is that they will increase our understanding of the motor molecules involved in the important cell biological phenomena of intracellular particle motility in general and fast axonal transport in particular.