Using siRNA to study microtubule-related proteins in cultured neurons

Testing functional hypotheses on the roles played by individual microtubule-related proteins in developing neurons benefits from having an effective means for depleting an individual protein from a population of cultured vertebrate neurons over an appropriate window. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) has the advantage of high transfection efficiency, but has certain limitations that require strategic experimental design. Here we describe the insights that we have gained over the years from using this approach.