title: Signalling endosomes in axonal transport: travel updates on the molecular highway.
abstract: Neurons are highly polarised cells. They make contact with their targets through long axons, along which a steady flux of proteins, lipids, nucleic acids and organelles is constantly maintained. This process is crucial to the development and maintenance of the nervous system, as proven by the many neurodegenerative disorders associated with defective axonal transport. Specific pools of endocytic organelles, which travel along the axon towards the cell body, have assumed a growing importance by virtue of their transported signals. These organelles, named signalling endosomes, vehicle growth factors, such as neurotrophins, and their signalling receptors all the way from the axon terminals to the neuronal cell body. Due to the central importance of neurotrophins in neuronal development and survival, significant efforts have gone over the years into the study of long-range neutrophin trafficking and signalling. Recent evidence has pointed to a role of signalling endosomes in the axonal retrograde transport of many morphogenetic and survival factors, increasing their importance even further. In light of these findings, signalling endosomes have shown potential for integration of different growth factors signals and the ability to decode them by differential sorting in the neuronal cell body. In this review we aim to discuss the state of the field regarding the nature and dynamics of signalling endosomes, their signalling capabilities, their energy requirements for axonal transport and last but not least, their importance in health and disease.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LY, UK; Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, Institute of Neurology, University College London, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schmieg
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LY, UK.
authors.forename: Guillermo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Menendez
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LY, UK; Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, Institute of Neurology, University College London, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK. Electronic address: giampietro.schiavo@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Giampietro
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schiavo
authors.affiliation: Biological Chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, 1 Herzl Street, Rehovot 76100, Israel. Electronic address: marco.terenzio@weizmann.ac.il.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Terenzio
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001370:Axonal Transport; D001369:Axons / Q000378:metabolism; D011992:Endosomes / Q000378:metabolism*; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008870:Microtubules / Q000378:metabolism; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors / Q000378:metabolism; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D017475:Receptors, Nerve Growth Factor / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D009414:Nerve Growth Factors; D017475:Receptors, Nerve Growth Factor
keywords: Axonal transport; Kidins220/ARMS; Neurotrophins; Rab GTPases; Tetanus neurotoxin; Trk receptors; p75(NTR)