A growth cone is a dynamic, actin-supported extension of a developing axon seeking its synaptic target. Their existence was originally proposed by Spanish histologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal based upon stationary images he observed under the microscope. He first described the growth cone based on fixed cells as “a concentration of protoplasm of conical form, endowed with amoeboid movements” (Cajal, 1890). Neuronal growth cones are situated on the very tips of nerve cells on structures called axons and dendrites. The sensory, motor, integrative, and adaptive functions of growing axons and dendrites are all contained within this specialized structure.
Read more about Growth Cone: Structure, Axon Branching and Outgrowth, Axon Guidance
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“For the time of towns is tolled from the world by funereal chimes, but in nature the universal hours are counted by succeeding tribes of animals and plants, and by growth of joy on joy.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)