Stylized axon arbor of a neuron. Yellow circle: root vertex at the axon initial segment; red circles: bifurcation vertices; black circles: terminal vertices at the axon's synaptic terminals.

They are the “input” part of the cell. Axon — this long projection carries information from the soma and sends it off to other cells. This is the “output” part of the cell.

Axon growth stops as the neuron and its axon connect to the neural circuit. "PTBP2 and SHTN1 give us an entry point to understand how splicing changes occur to promote axon growth," Zheng said.

In a typical neuron, the cell body comprises only about 10-20% of the cytoplasm; the rest lies in the axon and dendrites. Thus, understanding neurons requires acknowledging the axon's role.

EPB axon: "en passant boutons" are small bead-like structures along axons typically connecting distal regions. Credit: B. Fulopova (Queen's University).

Alice J. Paquette, Sharon E. Perez, David J. Anderson, Constitutive Expression of the Neuron-Restrictive Silencer Factor (NRSF)/REST in Differentiating Neurons Disrupts Neuronal Gene Expression and ...