Question

The neuronal cell bodies (which contain the cell’s nucleus and all organelles) that control movement in the tip of your toe are located at the base of your spine and project very long processes (axons) down your leg before synapsing with the appropriate muscle way down in your toe. This means that the components of the synaptic vesicles, which are made in the neuronal cell body but must act on your toe muscle to affect contraction, must travel a very long distance to reach the neuromuscular synapse. If you analyze the composition of axons histologically, you will find parallel arrays of both intermediate filaments and microtubules. Which cytoskeletal elements, (intermediate filaments or microtubules), do you think are most important in the process of synaptic vesicle movement from the cell body to the tip of the axon? Why?

Answer 1

Microtubules are more important for the transportation of synaptic vesicle from the cell body to the tip of axon. Basically microtubules are cytoskeletal structures made up of tubulin protein and they form a transportation pathway for trasnportation of vesicles along the length of axon. Microtubules contains two motor proteins kinesin (for anterograde trasnport) and dynein (for retrograde transport). These motor proteins carry the vesicles along the microtubules. Whereas Intermediate filaments just provide the support to a cell.