Immunolocalisation of myosin-V in the enteric nervous system of the rat

We show here the localisation of myosin-V in whole mount preparations of th e mucous-submucous and the muscular layers of rat small intestine by using an affinity purified antibody specific to the tail domain of myosin-V. Myos in-V immunostaining was intense in the submucous and myenteric nervous plex uses, allowing the visualisation of neuronal cell bodies and fibres. Wester n blots of total muscle layers homogenates detected with the same antibody revealed a single band of the expected size for myosin-V. Understanding the cellular localisation and function of this class of myosin is an important challenge and the accessibility and simplicity of the enteric nervous syst em as compared to the central nervous system, makes the digestive tract an attractive model for studying possible functional roles of myosin-V in neur otransmission and neuroplasticity. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B .V. All rights reserved.