PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Parul Sood AU - Kausalya Murthy AU - T. Vinod Kumar AU - Michael L Nonet AU - Gautam I. Menon AU - Sandhya P. Koushika TI - Cargo crowding at actin-rich regions along axons causes local traffic jams in neurons AID - 10.1101/151761 DP - 2017 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 151761 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/19/151761.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/19/151761.full AB - Steady axonal cargo flow is central to the functioning of healthy neurons. However, a substantial fraction of cargo in axons remains stationary across a broad distribution of times. We examine the transport of pre-synaptic vesicles (pre-SVs), endosomes and mitochondria in C. elegans touch receptor neurons (TRNs), showing that stalled cargo are predominantly present at actin-rich regions along the neuronal process. Cargo stalled at actin-rich regions increase the propensity of moving cargo to stall at the same location, resulting in traffic jams. Such local traffic jams at actin-rich regions are likely to be a general feature of axonal transport since they occur in Drosophila neurons as well. These traffic jams can act as both sources and sinks of vesicles. We propose that they act as functional reservoirs that contribute to maintaining robust cargo flow in the neuron.