An organelle gatekeeper function for Caenorhabditis elegans UNC-16 (JIP3) at the axon initial segment.

ABSTRACT: Neurons must cope with extreme membrane trafficking demands to produce axons with organelle compositions that differ dramatically from those of the cell soma and dendrites; however, the mechanism by which they accomplish this is not understood. Here we use electron microscopy and quantitative imaging of tagged organelles to show that Caenorhabditis elegans axons lacking UNC-16 (JIP3/Sunday Driver) accumulate Golgi, endosomes, and lysosomes at levels up to 10-fold higher than wild type, while ER membranes are largely unaffected. Time lapse microscopy of tagged lysosomes in living animals and an analysis of lysosome distributions in various regions of unc-16 mutant axons revealed that UNC-16 inhibits organelles from escaping the axon initial segment (AIS) and moving to the distal synaptic pa

SUBMITTER: Edwards SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3632462 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature