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Try reading a book from back to front and you'll be left confused. You need a sense of direction; left to right, front to back. Neurons need this too to function correctly. Structural elements called microtubules have an important role to play in this. They have a plus end and a minus end. Plus ends preferentially grow towards neuronal projections called axons, while they're repelled from growing into dendrites, neuronal projections that grow in the opposite direction to axons. Researchers investigated how this process is regulated by studying two neuron types in fruit fly larvae, pictured using fluorescence microscopy. The protein kinesin-2 is already known to move cargo along microtubules towards their plus ends. Using genetic interference to reduce kinesin-2 levels, the team found microtubule plus ends strayed more into dendrites, as captured using live-cell imaging. Kinesin-2 is therefore also important in helping neurons maintain a sense of direction

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image by Amrita Mukherjee and colleagues
• Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, July 2020