Development of Electrical Properties in Neural-Lineage Cellsof Early Xenopus Embryos

本项目将研究爪蟾早期胚胎神经系细胞电生理特性的发展。尽管很多人都关注有丝分裂后特定神经元末梢分化过程中离子通道群的调节，但关于神经谱系细胞早期阶段离子通道群发育的信息很少。当对神经表型的初始承诺发生时。穆迪博士将使用膜片钳技术在非洲爪蟾胚胎中研究这个问题，在未受精的卵母细胞和神经细胞之间的阶段。他将研究参与胚胎神经系统形成的细胞首先表达与其他命运细胞不同的功能性离子通道群的阶段，然后研究卵母细胞的电学特性转化为神经元表型细胞的发育过程。将特别关注离子通道合成的作用，预先存在的通道的调制，以及离子通道在单细胞表面的空间分布在神经系统的早期电生理分化。

This project will examine the development of electrophysiological properties in neural-lineage cells of the early Xenopus embryo. Although much attention has focussed on the modulation of populations of ion channels during the terminal differentiation of specific sets of post-mitotic neurons, very little information is available about the development of ion channel populations in neural-lineage cells at earlier stages, when initial commitment to neural phenotypes occurs. Dr. Moody will use patch clamp techniques to study this problem in the Xenopus embryo, at stages between the unfertilized oocyte and the neurula. He will examine the stages at which cells involved in the formation of the embryonic nervous system first express functional ion channel populations distinct from cells of other fates, and then investigate the developmental processes by which the electrical properties of the oocyte are transformed into those of cells committed to neuronal phenotypes. Particular attention will be paid to the roles of ion channel synthesis, the modulation of pre-existing channels, and the spatial distribution of ion channels over the surface of single cells in the early electrophysiological differentiation of the nervous system.