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First published online 27 February 2007
doi: 10.1242/jcs.03384

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Kinetic-structural analysis of neuronal growth cone veil motility

Anne K. Mongiu^*, Elizabeth L. Weitzke, Oleg Y. Chaga and Gary G. Borisy

Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Marine Biological Laboratory, 303 E. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611, USA

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: akmongi{at}northwestern.edu)

Accepted 28 December 2006

Neuronal growth cone advance was investigated by correlative light and electron microscopy carried out on chick dorsal root ganglion cells. Advance was analyzed in terms of the two principal organelles responsible for protrusive motility in the growth cone – namely, veils and filopodia. Veils alternated between rapid phases of protrusion and retraction. Electron microscopy revealed characteristic structural differences between the phases. Our results provide a significant advance in three respects: first, protruding veils are comprised of a densely branched network of actin filaments that is lamellipodial in appearance and includes the Arp2/3 complex. On the basis of this structural and biomarker evidence, we infer that the dendritic nucleation and/or array-treadmilling mechanism of protrusive motility is conserved in veil protrusion of growth cones as in the motility of fibroblasts; second, retracting veils lack dendritic organization but contain a sparse network of long filaments; and third, growth cone filopodia have the capacity to nucleate dendritic networks along their length, a property consistent with veil formation seen at the light microscopic level but not previously understood in supramolecular terms. These elements of veil and filopodial organization, when taken together, provide a conceptual framework for understanding the structural basis of growth cone advance.

Key words: Actin related protein (Arp) 2/3 complex, Cytoskeletal proteins, Kinetics, Growth cones, Cell motility, Electron microscopy

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