Page 49 - AWSAR 2.0

Traffic Jams in the Brain
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Dr Parul Sood*
Email: parul.sood05@gmail.com
My research story takes place in a tiny worm’s neurons. The main characters of this story are:
Kinesin: A protein that transports raw materials in neurons
Dynein: Another protein that transports raw materials in neurons
Vesicle: Packaging in which raw materials are carried
Microtubule: An assembly of proteins that holds the structure of a neuron and also provides the road for Kinesin to walk on.
Actin: An assembly of proteins present as a meshwork in a neuron that provides structural support to it.
Honk! Honk! ‘What is up with this traffic?’ asked Kinesin in frustration.
‘I am just returning from the synapse and,
trust me, it’s going to take some time, buddy. There is a huge cargo stuck on the road ahead, a couple of (microtubule) road repairs going on, and on top of all that, there are those dense (actin) bushes!! They are like traps along the road. Many cargoes are stuck there, and as usual, there is still no action taken to clear that (actin) mesh or mess if you would like. I think that’s more appropriate!,’ said a passerby Dynein, who was returning from the synapse.
Kinesin sighed and continued her journey as usual!
This was pretty much like any other day in Kinesin’s life. She worked as a carrier in one of the signal-relaying centres of the B.R.A.I.N., called the neuron (Fig. 1).
Multiple neurons worked together to keep the B.R.A.I.N. functional. Each neuron had two
* Dr Parul Sood, Post Doctoral Fellow from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, is pursuing her research on “An in vitro Screen to Identify Potential Vesicular Trafficking Players in Caenorhabditis elegans”. Her popular science story entitled “Traffic Jams in the Brain” has been selected for AWSAR Award