Intra-axonal protein synthesis has been shown to play critical roles in both development and repair of axons. Axons provide long-range connectivity in the nervous system, and disruption of their function and/or structure is seen in several neurological diseases and disorders. Axonally synthesized proteins or losses in axonally synthesized proteins contribute to neurodegenerative diseases, neuropathic pain, viral transport, and survival of axons. Increasing sensitivity of RNA detection and quantitation coupled with methods to isolate axons to purity has shown that a surprisingly complex transcriptome exists in axons. This extends across different species, neuronal populations, and physiological conditions. These studies have helped define the repertoire of neuronal mRNAs that can localize into axons and imply previously unrecognized functions for local translation in neurons. Here, we review the current state of transcriptomics studies of isolated axons, contrast axonal mRNA profiles between different neuronal types and growth states, and discuss how mRNA transport into and translation within axons contribute to neurological disorders.

轴突内蛋白合成已显示在轴突的发育和修复中起关键作用。轴突在神经系统中提供远程连接，并且在几种神经系统疾病和障碍中可见其功能和/或结构的破坏。轴突合成的蛋白质或轴突合成的蛋白质的损失导致神经退行性疾病，神经性疼痛，病毒运输和轴突的存活。RNA检测和定量方法的敏感性提高，再加上分离轴突的纯度的方法，表明轴突中存在令人惊讶的复杂转录组。这跨越了不同的物种，神经元种群和生理状况。这些研究帮助定义了可以定位到轴突中的神经元mRNA的组成部分，并暗示了以前无法识别的神经元局部翻译功能。在这里，我们审查了隔离轴突的转录组学研究的当前状态，对比了不同神经元类型和生长状态之间轴突mRNA谱，并讨论了轴突中mRNA的运输和翻译如何导致神经系统疾病。