ArticleNature neuroscience2025
Membrane mechanics dictate axonal pearls-on-a-string morphology and function.
Article in Nature neuroscience, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed.
- Microglia extract neuronal proteolytic organelles via skoupocytosis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Spatial confinement shapes organelle architecture and remodeling in axons.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Presynaptic Vesicles Supply Membrane for Axonal Bouton Enlargement during Long Term Potentiation.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Spark or Sound: How Two Differing Explanatory Strategies Impact the Debate on the Physical Nature of Neuronal Excitability.Membranes · 2026Article
- Mechanotransduction in the Brain: Soliton Theory, Piezo Receptors and MR Elastography in Headache Pathophysiology.Brain and behavior · 2026Review
- Mitochondrial mechanics nucleates axonal jamming and swelling.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
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- Phosphatidylserine Decarboxylase Regulates Retinal Ganglion Cell Neurite Outgrowth with Altered Somal Membrane Fluidics and Mitochondrial Morphology.Biomolecules · 2026Article
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- Memory engram synapse 3D macromolecular architecture visualized by cryoCLEM-guided cryoET.Structure (London, England : 1993) · 2026Article
- Mitochondrial pearling: membrane biophysics, CaFrontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Oscillatory dynamics in paclitaxel-proteinoid networks.Discover molecules · 2026Article
- Oscillating gradient spin echo diffusion time effects implicate variations in neurite beading for the heterogeneous reduced diffusion in human acute ischemic stroke lesions.Magnetic resonance in medicine · 2025Article
- Morphological specializations of mosquito COProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Beyond synapses: cytoplasmic connections in brain function and evolution.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Ultrastructural membrane dynamics of mouse and human cortical synapses.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Traditions of Excellence: neuroanatomy at the forefront of the new era.Anatomical science international · 2025Review
- Intersectin and endophilin condensates prime synaptic vesicles for release site replenishment.Nature neuroscience · 2025Article
- Cholinergic and Glutamatergic Axons Differentially Require Glial Support in the Drosophila PNS.Glia · 2025Article
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Abstract
Axons are ultrathin membrane cables that are specialized for the conduction of action potentials. Although their diameter is variable along their length, how their morphology is determined is unclear. Here, we demonstrate that unmyelinated axons of the mouse central nervous system have nonsynaptic, nanoscopic varicosities ~200 nm in diameter repeatedly along their length interspersed with a thin cable ~60 nm in diameter like pearls-on-a-string. In silico modeling suggests that this axon nanopearling can be explained by membrane mechanical properties. Treatments disrupting membrane properties, such as hyper- or hypotonic solutions, cholesterol removal and nonmuscle myosin II inhibition, alter axon nanopearling, confirming the role of membrane mechanics in determining axon morphology. Furthermore, neuronal activity modulates plasma membrane cholesterol concentration, leading to changes in axon nanopearls and causing slowing of action potential conduction velocity. These data reveal that biophysical forces dictate axon morphology and function, and modulation of membrane mechanics likely underlies unmyelinated axonal plasticity.
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