Figure 1

Quantitative analysis of microtubule polymerization in axons and dendrites was performed using kymographs. (A) Representative segment from the dendrite of a 2-DIV neuron expressing GFP-tagged EB1. White lines outline the region of the dendrite from which the kymograph was generated. In these analyses, the entire width of each axon or dendrite was sampled. (B) The corresponding kymograph detected multiple polymerization events in both the anterograde and retrograde directions. Proximal to distal neurite length is indicated on the y-axis, and time is represented on the x-axis. The kymographic trace shown here was compiled from 20 frames, acquired as a stream for a duration of 12 s. (C) Enlarged segment from the kymograph showing how comet slope was used to determine the rate and distance of individual polymerization events. See Additional file 1 to view the accompanying recording.