Nanoparticle-assisted optical tethering of endosomes reveals the cooperative function of dyneins in retrograde axonal transport.

ABSTRACT: Dynein-dependent transport of organelles from the axon terminals to the cell bodies is essential to the survival and function of neurons. However, quantitative knowledge of dyneins on axonal organelles and their collective function during this long-distance transport is lacking because current technologies to do such measurements are not applicable to neurons. Here, we report a new method termed nanoparticle-assisted optical tethering of endosomes (NOTE) that made it possible to study the cooperative mechanics of dyneins on retrograde axonal endosomes in live neurons. In this method, the opposing force from an elastic tether causes the endosomes to gradually stall under load and detach with a recoil velocity proportional to the dynein forces. These recoil velocities reveal that the axonal

SUBMITTER: Chowdary PD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4674899 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature