根据Sanjay Tyagi博士和新泽西医学和牙科大学的同事们的研究表明：蛋白前体对脊椎延伸中神经信号的单一传输是必需的。
这项研究最近发表在PNAS杂志上。
轴突尖端和神经元的突触信号传输过程中涉及的蛋白质以前体形式（信使RNA或mRNA）传输。新泽西医学院医学系、公共健康研究所Tyagi副教授解释说：位于突触的基因被翻译[成蛋白质]是必需。Tyagi补充说：如果该部位需要一种蛋白质的多个副本，它可以由一个单一的基因产生。
一些研究者认为这些mRNAs与其他mRNAs存在“拼车”现象。但Tyagi和他的同事的研究表明这些mRNAs以单个文件形式传输，每个颗粒只表达一种mRNA。尽管单程运输多个mRNAs可能看起来更高效，但这可能利于神经元突触的形成和神经运作所需要的灵活性。
进一步了解这些mRNAs是如何被运送到神经突触可能有助于科学家解开记忆产生的奥秘，记忆形成过程需要形成新的突触和旧突触的修改。（生物谷：Bioon）
doi:10.1073/pnas.1111226109
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Neuronal mRNAs travel singly into dendrites.
M. Batish, P. van den Bogaard, F. R. Kramer, S. Tyagi.
RNA transport granules deliver translationally repressed mRNAs to synaptic sites in dendrites, where synaptic activity promotes their localized translation. Although the identity of many proteins that make up the neuronal granules is known, the stoichiometry of their core component, the mRNA, is poorly understood. By imaging nine different dendritically localized mRNA species with single-molecule sensitivity and subdiffraction-limit resolution in cultured hippocampal neurons, we show that two molecules of the same or different mRNA species do not assemble in common structures. Even mRNA species with a common dendritic localization element, the sequence that is believed to mediate the incorporation of these mRNAs into common complexes, do not colocalize. These results suggest that mRNA molecules traffic to the distal reaches of dendrites singly and independently of others, a model that permits a finer control of mRNA content within a synapse for synaptic plasticity.
