Getting the upper hand: Regulating motor proteins and their tracks in neurons

Intracellular transport is essential to deliver cargoes throughout the cell, for example organelles, vesicles containing receptors, signaling molecules, or building blocks for the cell. Neurons are especially vulnerable to defects in transport because of their highly specialized morphology and the large distances that cargoes must travel to their destination. Many neurodegenerative and neurological diseases such as Lissencephaly, Amytropic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), spinal muscular dystrophy, and others have been linked to defects in transport. Thus, understanding the basic mechanisms that underlie intracellular transport in neurons is essential to understand the pathophysiology behind neurological disease and will better equip us to treat them.
The mechanisms of transport are difficult to elucidate, because of their enormous complexity. Nonetheless, much progress has been made over the past decades using a variety of approaches. The chapters in this thesis present different types of regulation utilized by neuronal cells. In addition to the basic stepping mechanism of motor proteins, many regulators contribute to active transport. We are learning that every type of motor has its own set of regulatory proteins and its own unique modes of regulation. Hence, various different pathways contribute to active transport and many of them are not mutually exclusive.