Fig. 10. Detection of axonal mRNAs by RT-PCR. Seven representative retrogradely transported axonal proteins that comprise elongation-initiation factor 4A (eIF4A), elongation-initiation factor 5A (eIF5A), Trx, vimentin 4 (Vim4), β-tubulin at 56 D (betaTub56D), calpactin 1 light chain (AnxA2), and dynein light chain 1 (Dlc1) were selected to determine whether their corresponding transcripts were present in axonal RNA extracts using primers described in Table 1. The predicted sizes of the amplified products of these cDNAs are 175, 163, 226, 150, 163, 200 and 223 bp respectively. Although there is variability in the levels of each of the amplicons, expression can be seen in each case (+). No products were amplified when reverse transcriptase was omitted from the reactions (–). M, HpaII-digested Bluescript vector as a size marker.