Many differentiated cells elaborate distinct plasma membrane domains that, although physically continuous, can differ markedly in composition. One of the more dramatic examples is the vertebrate neuron that extends two distinctive processes, axons and dendrites. Axons and dendrites differ in the complement of membrane proteins on their plasma membrane, as well as in the composition of cytoskeletal components and other organelles (Craig and Banker 1994). These biochemical differences are responsible for the functional differences that enable neurons to send and receive electrical signals in a vectorial fashion. How are membrane proteins sorted correctly to axons and dendrites, and how is the resulting differential membrane protein distribution maintained?
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Winckler et al. (1999) studied this question.
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