Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have found that structures called “Golgi outposts” play a central role as distribution points for proteins that form the building blocks of growing dendrites.

“This finding is important because a fundamental problem that neurons must solve is how to sort appropriate cargo molecules in the right amounts down different dendritic branches,” said investigator Micheal Ehlers. “We’ve found that these dendritic Golgi outposts are located at the strategic points to do just that. And I believe this is the first such specific organelle identified at a dendritic branch point positioned to perform this fundamental neuronal function.”

Such basic insights into neuronal growth will help researchers better understand brain development in children, as well as aid efforts to restore neuronal connections lost to injury, stroke or neurodegenerative disease, said the researchers.