Skip Navigation


Integrative and Comparative Biology Advance Access originally published online on October 3, 2006
Integrative and Comparative Biology 2006 46(6):847-870; doi:10.1093/icb/icl042
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
46/6/847    most recent
icl042v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (2)
Right arrow Request Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lovell, P.
Right arrow Articles by Moroz, L. L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

The largest growth cones in the animal kingdom: an illustrated guide to the dynamics of Aplysia neuronal growth in cell culture

Peter Lovell* and Leonid L. Moroz1,*,{dagger}
* The Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, University of Florida 9505 Ocean Shore Blvd., St Augustine, FL 32080, USA
{dagger} Department of Neuroscience and McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611, USA

Correspondence: 1E-mail: moroz{at}whitney.ufl.edu

The marine mollusc, Aplysia californica is a powerful experimental model in cellular and systems neuroscience. Aplysia neurons are large, colored, and located at the ganglionic surface. Because of this, many neurons can be easily identified in terms of their physiological properties, synaptic connections, and behavioral roles. Simple networks can be reconstructed in cell culture and have been widely useful for cellular and molecular biological studies of neuronal growth, synaptogenesis, and learning and memory mechanisms. Here, we show that Aplysia neurons can form truly gigantic growth cones reaching up to 630 µm in diameter making them the largest growth cones ever reported in the animal kingdom. Second, using time-lapse video microscopy we have characterized the dynamics of neuronal outgrowth for 3 identified cell types (mechanosensory neurons, L7 motoneurons, and modulatory MCC neurons) representing 3 major functional classes of neurons. We show both cell-specific and neurite-specific growth characteristics and an irregular oscillatory rate of outgrowth ranging from 20 to 100 µm/h. Third, we characterized the dynamics of axotomy-induced neurite outgrowth as well as extrasomatic localization of ß-tubulin mRNA in restricted regions of neuronal processes including growth cones and varicosities. The extrasomatically located mRNAs can be an important pool of neuronal transcripts supporting semiautonomous behavior of growth cones and localized synthesis of proteins in distinct and distant neuronal compartments. The reported data are compared with the existing literature from Lymnaea and Helisoma neurons as well as vertebrate preparations. Finally, our observations can provide an illustrated guide to complex behavior of neurons and glia in cell culture as well as their dependence upon various trophic factors and responses to neuronal injury.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Biophys. JHome page
M. O'Toole, P. Lamoureux, and K. E. Miller
A Physical Model of Axonal Elongation: Force, Viscosity, and Adhesions Govern the Mode of Outgrowth
Biophys. J., April 1, 2008; 94(7): 2610 - 2620.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.