PSYC 355 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Axon Terminal, Axoplasmic Transport, Kinesin
Document Summary
The axon terminal has no ribosomes, which means there is no protein synthesis. These proteins then pass from the soma through microtubules and then down to the axon terminal. Mitochondria are very present in the axon terminals, which means they need a lot of energy (atp) Kinesin walks down the microtubule from the soma to the axon. Retrograde transport: from axon terminal to the soma. The hypothesis is that the axon terminal needs some way to let the soma know what their needs are. It is possible to inject a virus into an axon terminal, in order to be able to know which cell bodies send to a particular area through retrograde transport. Good signal-to-noise, but the viruses might spread explosively, which makes too much signal. In that case, the type of virus is important: choosing a not-too-infectious virus. Inject a virus in an area, leave it for days and then they can see all connections in an area.
