© L. Brian Stauffer, U. of I. News BureauUniversity of Illinois doctoral student Scott Siechen (left), mechanical science and engineering professor Taher Saif and their colleagues found that tension in axons is required for proper neuron signaling.
Every time a neuron sends a signal - to move a muscle or form a memory, for example - tiny membrane-bound compartments, called vesicles, dump neurotransmitters into the synapse between the cells. Researchers report that this process, which is fundamental to the workings of the nervous system, relies on a simple mechanical reality:
Tension in the axon of the presynaptic neuron is required.
Without this tension, the researchers found, the vesicles that must haul their chemical cargo to the synapse for neuronal signaling would instead disperse.
The new findings appear this week in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.