Quantitative analysis of axonal transport of cytoskeletal proteins in chicken oculomotor nerve

We studied the axonal transport characteristics of major cytoskeletal proteins: tubulin, the 69,000 molecular weight protein of chicken neurofilaments, and actin. After intracerebral injection of [35S]methionine, we monitored the specific radioactivity of these proteins as they passed through a very short nerve segment of the chicken oculomotor nerve. Specific radioactivities were assessed by quantitative sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and autoradiography. The transport patterns obtained for tubulin and the neurofilament protein were very similar, corresponding to transport rate ranges of 1-15 and 1-10 mm/day, respectively. A narrower velocity range of 3 to 4.3 mm/day was found for actin. Tubulin and the neurofilament protein appeared to be largely dispersed during the course of their transit along the nerve. The radioactivity associated with the proteins studied persisted in the nerve segment for a long time after the bulk of the labeled molecules had swept down. Finally, none of these proteins was observed to be transported with the fast axonal transport.