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PMID: 23239625 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Actin, spectrin, and associated proteins form a periodic cytoskeletal structure in axons.

Science (New York, N.Y.) ·Vol. 339 ·No. 6118 ·2013-01-25 ·Pages 452-6

Xu K, Zhong G, Zhuang X

Abstract

Actin and spectrin play important roles in neurons, but their organization in axons and dendrites remains unclear. We used stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy to study the organization of actin, spectrin, and associated proteins in neurons. Actin formed ringlike structures that wrapped around the circumference of axons and were evenly spaced along axonal shafts with a periodicity of ~180 to 190 nanometers. This periodic structure was not observed in dendrites, which instead contained long actin filaments running along dendritic shafts. Adducin, an actin-capping protein, colocalized with the actin rings. Spectrin exhibited periodic structures alternating with those of actin and adducin, and the distance between adjacent actin-adducin rings was comparable to the length of a spectrin tetramer. Sodium channels in axons were distributed in a periodic pattern coordinated with the underlying actin-spectrin-based cytoskeleton.

MeSH Terms
Actin Capping Proteins/chemistry,ultrastructure Actin Cytoskeleton/chemistry,ultrastructure Actins/chemistry,ultrastructure Animals Axons/chemistry,ultrastructure Calmodulin-Binding Proteins/chemistry,ultrastructure Cells, Cultured Cytoskeleton/chemistry,ultrastructure Dendrites/chemistry,ultrastructure Hippocampus/ultrastructure Image Processing, Computer-Assisted Microscopy, Fluorescence/methods Neurons/chemistry,ultrastructure Protein Multimerization Rats Rats, Wistar Sodium Channels/chemistry,ultrastructure Spectrin/chemistry,ultrastructure
Chemicals
Actin Capping Proteins Actins Calmodulin-Binding Proteins Sodium Channels adducin Spectrin
Authors & Affiliations
3 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Xu Ke
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Zhong Guisheng
Zhuang Xiaowei
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Article Info
Journal
Science (New York, N.Y.)
Abbr.
Science
ISSN
1095-9203
DOI
10.1126/science.1232251
Published
2013-01-25
Epub
2012-00-13
Pages
452-6
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
0404511
PMCID
PMC3815867
Subset
IM
Grants
NIGMS NIH HHS · R01 GM096450 · United States
Howard Hughes Medical Institute · United States
Corrections
CommentIn
PMID: 23473560
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1126/science.1232251 PMC Full Text View journal details
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