Adina R. Buxbaum1,2,3, Young J. Yoon1, Robert H. Singer1,2,3, and Hye Yoon Park3,4,5
1 Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
2 Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
3 Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 19700 Helix Drive, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA
4 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-747, Korea
5 Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea
Corresponding author: Hye Yoon Park
Targeting of mRNAs to neuronal dendrites and axons plays an integral role in intracellular signaling, development, and synaptic plasticity. Single-molecule imaging of mRNAs in neurons and brain tissue has led to enhanced understanding of mRNA dynamics. Here we discuss aspects of mRNA regulation as revealed by single-molecule detection, which has led to quantitative analyses of mRNA diversity, localization, transport, and translation. These exciting new discoveries propel our understanding of the life of an mRNA in a neuron and how its activity is regulated at the single-molecule level.
Keywords: RNA localization; mRNA tracking; local translation; smFISH