Where does slow axonal transport go?

Abstract

Axonal transport is the specialized and well-developed intracellular transport system for regulated and/or long-distance transport based on generalized cellular machineries. Among them, slow axonal transport conveys cytoplasmic proteins. The motor molecule, the nature of transporting complex and the transport regulation mechanism for slow transport are still unclarified. There has been a dispute regarding the nature of transporting complex of cytoskeletal proteins, polymer-sliding hypothesis versus subunit-transport theory. Recent data supporting the hypothesis of polymer sliding in cultured neurons only reconfirm the previously reported structure and this inference suffers from the lack of ultrastructural evidence and the direct relevance to the physiological slow transport phenomenon in vivo. Observation of the moving cytoskeletal proteins in vivo using transgenic mice or squid giant axons revealed that subunits do move in a microtubule-dependent manner, strongly indicating the involvement of microtubule-based motor kinesin. If the slow transport rate reflects the intermittent fast transport dependent on kinesin motor, we have to investigate the molecular constituents of the transporting complex in more detail and evaluate why the motor and cargo interaction is so unstable. This kind of weak and fluctuating interaction between various molecular pairs could not be detected by conventional techniques, thus necessitating the establishment of a new experimental system before approaching the molecular regulation problem.