title: Evolution in action: giant ankyrins awake.
abstract: Reporting in Developmental Cell, Stephan et al. (2015) demonstrate critical axonal and presynaptic functions from acquisition of an enormous exon by the Drosophila ank2 gene. They propose that highly elongated ank2-XL molecules, associated with the plasma membrane through spectrin and ank2-L, extend deep into the axoplasm to promote microtubule organization.
authors: Department of Biochemistry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Durham, NC 27710, USA. Electronic address: vann.bennett@duke.edu.
authors: Vann
authors: V
authors: Bennett
authors: Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
authors: Kathryn
authors: K
authors: Walder
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified / Q000378:metabolism*; D017487:Ankyrins / Q000378:metabolism*; D001370:Axonal Transport / Q000502:physiology*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000378:metabolism*; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008870:Microtubules / Q000378:metabolism*; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: C498993:Ank2 protein, Drosophila; D017487:Ankyrins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; C409635:futsch protein, Drosophila; C085284:microtubule-associated protein 1B