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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 May 11.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Neurosci. 2012 Jun 10;15(7):1022–1031. doi: 10.1038/nn.3141

Figure 2. TAO2 down-regulation or over-expression affects the differentiation of isolated cortical neurons.

Figure 2

(a) TAO2 down-regulation and over-expression have opposite effects in the complexity of cortical neurons. TAO2 shRNA-transfected neurons display fewer branched neurites, with collapsed growth cones. Expression of an shRNA-resistant human TAO2 cDNA (hTAO2) counteracts TAO2 down-regulation. Rat (r)TAO2 over-expression increases neuronal complexity with more primary neurites. (b) Quantification of F-actin content in growth cones. TAO2 silencing decreased the levels of F-actin in growth cones (control: n=44 cells/three cultures; TAO2 shRNA 1: n=43 cells/three cultures; TAO2 shRNA 2: n=36 cells/two cultures; P<0.0001 by one-way ANOVA, posthoc Dunnett test **P <0.01). (c) Quantification of the number of intact (non-collapsed) growth cones per transfected cell. TAO2 silencing decreased the number of intact growth cones per cell (control: n=160 cells/three cultures; TAO2 shRNA 1: n=133 cells /three cultures; TAO2 shRNA 2: n=36 cells/two cultures; P<0.0001 by one-way ANOVA, posthoc Dunnett test **P <0.01). (d, e) TAO2 down-regulation decreases the number of primary (control: n=168 cells/three cultures; TAO2 shRNA 1: n=149 cells/three cultures; TAO2 shRNA 2: n=36 cells/two cultures; P<0.0001 by one-way ANOVA, posthoc Dunnett test **P <0.01) and secondary neurites (P=0.0102 by one-way ANOVA, posthoc Dunnett test *P <0.05) per transfected cell. TAO2 over-expression increases the number of primary neurites (rTAO2: n=119 cells/three cultures; P<0.0001 by one-way ANOVA, posthoc Dunnett test **P <0.01). Mean ± s.e.m. Scale bar: 10 µm.