axon

noun

ax·on | \ ˈak-ˌsän

variants: or less commonly axone \ -ˌsōn

Definition of axon

: a usually long and single nerve-cell process that usually conducts impulses away from the cell body — see neuron illustration

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This protein is engineered to bind to the RNA bar code so that the tag, too, is dragged along the axon. — Simon Makin, Scientific American, "“Bar Codes.” Could Trace Errant Brain Wiring in Autism and Schizophrenia," 30 Mar. 2018 Once inside a cell each virus expresses a unique 30-letter, or nucleotide, RNA sequence (a bar code consisting of the letters G, A, T, C), along with a protein that cells naturally transport along axons. — Simon Makin, Scientific American, "“Bar Codes.” Could Trace Errant Brain Wiring in Autism and Schizophrenia," 30 Mar. 2018 Its lone axon, pointing straight down, and whiskery dendritic spines, which receive signals from neighboring neurons, alone in an empty landscape: the canonical depiction of Cajal’s discovery that neurons are distinct entities. — Sharon Begley, STAT, "In ‘Beautiful Brain,’ the secrets of neurons emerge in Nobel-winning scientist’s ink and pencil drawings," 3 May 2018 In particular, the drugs appeared to fuel the growth of dendritic spines and axons, the appendages that brain cells of all sorts use to reach out in the darkness and create connections, or synapses, with other brain cells. — Melissa Healy, latimes.com, "Psychedelic drugs change brain cells in ways that could help fight depression, addiction and more," 12 June 2018 Cajal also developed the Theory of Dynamic Polarization, which poses that information flows in one direction — into a neuron’s dendrites, through its cell body, and out its axon. — Cate Mcquaid, BostonGlobe.com, "A different sort of scan in ‘The Beautiful Brain’," 6 June 2018 This involves introducing into cells genes that produce proteins that fluoresce with a greenish glow, so they and their axons (neurons’ output wires) can be visualized with light microscopy. — Simon Makin, Scientific American, "“Bar Codes.” Could Trace Errant Brain Wiring in Autism and Schizophrenia," 30 Mar. 2018 One set of axons projected to the periacqueductal gray in the midbrain, an area involved in motor behaviors. — Lydia Denworth, Scientific American, "A Command Center in the Mammalian Brain Orchestrates Parenting Behaviors," 11 Apr. 2018 Studies of the squid's giant axon helped spawn modern neuroscience decades ago, and the light organ of the bobtail squid (Euprymna scolopes) powered a revolution in the study of symbiotic host-microbe interactions. — Danna Staaf, Science | AAAS, "How to put an octopus to sleep—and make cephalopod research more humane," 4 Apr. 2018

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