The polarized sorting of membrane proteins expressed in cultured hippocampal neurons using viral vectors

Mark Jareb, Gary Banker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

154 Scopus citations

Abstract

One model of neuronal polarity (Dotti and Simons, 1990) proposes that neurons and polarized epithelia use similar mechanisms to sort membrane proteins. To explore this hypothesis, we used viral vectors to express proteins in cultured neurons and assessed their distribution using quantitative immunofluorescence microscopy. Basolateral epithelial proteins were polarized to dendrites; more significantly, mutations of sequences required for their basolateral targeting in epithelia also disrupted dendritic targeting. Unexpectedly, apical proteins were not polarized to axons but were expressed at roughly equal amounts in dendrites and axons. These data provide strong evidence that targeting of basolateral and dendritic proteins depends on common mechanisms. In contrast, the sorting of proteins to the axon requires signals that are not present in apical proteins.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)855-867
Number of pages13
JournalNeuron
Volume20
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1998

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience

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