title: Drag of the cytosol as a transport mechanism in neurons.
abstract: Axonal transport is typically divided into two components, which can be distinguished by their mean velocity. The fast component includes steady trafficking of different organelles and vesicles actively transported by motor proteins. The slow component comprises nonmembranous materials that undergo infrequent bidirectional motion. The underlying mechanism of slow axonal transport has been under debate during the past three decades. We propose a simple displacement mechanism that may be central for the distribution of molecules not carried by vesicles. It relies on the cytoplasmic drag induced by organelle movement and readily accounts for key experimental observations pertaining to slow-component transport. The induced cytoplasmic drag is predicted to depend mainly on the distribution of microtubules in the axon and the organelle transport rate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Matan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mussel
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Keren
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zeevy
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Haim
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Diamant
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. Electronic address: nevouri@tau.ac.il.
authors.forename: Uri
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Nevo
mesh_terms: D001370:Axonal Transport; D003600:Cytosol / Q000378:metabolism*; D008870:Microtubules / Q000378:metabolism; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*