Subcellular expression profiling of the growth cones of retinal ganglion cells (RGC)

Cue-directed axon guidance depends partly on local translation in growth cones. Many mRNA transcripts are known to reside in developing axons yet little is known about their subcellular distribution or, specifically, which transcripts are in growth cones. Laser capture microdissection (LCM) was used to isolate the growth cones of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons of two vertebrate species, mouse and Xenopus, coupled with unbiased genome-wide microarray profiling. Localized mRNA from the isolated growth cones of Xenopus laevis and Mus musculus retinal ganglion cells were subjected to microarray analysis