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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Labeling F-actin Barbed Ends with Rhodamine-actin in Permeabilized Neuronal Growth Cones

Labeling F-actin Barbed Ends with Rhodamine-actin in Permeabilized Neuronal Growth Cones

Published on: March 17, 2011

Measuring Retrograde Actin Flow in Neuronal Growth Cones.

Laura Pulido Cifuentes¹, Daniel M Suter^2,3,4,5,6,7

¹Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.

Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.)

|August 12, 2024

Summary

Quantifying retrograde actin flow in neuronal growth cones is crucial for understanding cell locomotion. This study presents three methods to measure this F-actin movement in Aplysia neurons.

Keywords:

Actin cytoskeleton Kymograph Neuronal growth cone Retrograde F-actin flow Time-lapse imaging

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Last Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Labeling F-actin Barbed Ends with Rhodamine-actin in Permeabilized Neuronal Growth Cones

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Published on: March 17, 2011

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Published on: May 12, 2018

Analyses of Actin Dynamics, Clutch Coupling and Traction Force for Growth Cone Advance

Analyses of Actin Dynamics, Clutch Coupling and Traction Force for Growth Cone Advance

Published on: October 21, 2021

Area of Science:

Cell Biology
Neuroscience
Cytoskeletal Dynamics

Background:

Actin flow, the movement of the F-actin cytoskeleton, is vital for cell locomotion, particularly in motile cells like neuronal growth cones.
This flow is typically retrograde, moving from the cell periphery towards the center.
Substrate-cytoskeletal coupling allows actin flow to drive forward cell movement.

Purpose of the Study:

To present and illustrate three distinct methods for quantifying retrograde F-actin flow.
To apply these methods to F-actin flow in growth cones of cultured Aplysia bag cell neurons.

Main Methods:

Tracking the movement of surface marker beads.
Kymograph analysis of time-lapse sequences using differential interference contrast (DIC) imaging.
Kymograph analysis of time-lapse sequences using fluorescent speckle microscopy (FSM).

Main Results:

Demonstrated successful quantification of retrograde F-actin flow using the described methods.
Highlighted the suitability of Aplysia neuronal growth cones for these techniques due to their size.

Conclusions:

The presented methods provide robust ways to measure retrograde F-actin flow in neuronal growth cones.
These techniques are adaptable for use in other growth cone systems with distinct F-actin-rich peripheral domains.