Agrin Gene Expression

神经细胞或神经元的生长、分化和存活取决于它们与它们通过突触接触支配的结构之间交换的信号。 一种被认为在突触形成中重要的蛋白质是聚集蛋白。 该项目利用了眼睛中一种众所周知的神经肌肉突触，以及一种对单个神经元进行分子分析的新技术，以检查产生聚集蛋白的基因表达的控制。 分子和细胞生物学技术允许检查在发育过程中聚集蛋白表达的变化，以及参与表达的四种可变剪接信使RNA序列在单细胞内的起源。 这些结果对于理解发育过程中指导突触形成的细胞-细胞相互作用非常重要，这是神经系统组织的基础。

The growth, differentiation and survival of nerve cells, or neurons, depend upon signals exchanged between them and the structures they innervate with synaptic contacts. A protein that is believed to be important in synapse formation is agrin. This project exploits a well-known neuromuscular synapse in the eye, and a novel technique for molecular analysis of single neurons to examine the control of the expression of the genes which produce agrin. Molecular and cellular biological techniques allow examining changes in agrin expression during development, and the origins within single cells of the four alternatively spliced messenger-RNA sequences involved in the expression. Results will be important to understanding cell-cell interactions that direct synapse formation during development, which is fundamental to organization of the nervous system.