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与突触接触所支配的结构之间交换的信号。一种被认为对突触形成很重要的蛋白质是集聚蛋白。该项目利用眼睛中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，来检查产生集聚蛋白的基因的表达控制。分子和细胞生物学技术可以检测集聚蛋白在发育过程中表达的变化，以及参与表达的四个选择性剪接的信使-RNA序列在单个细胞内的起源。结果对于理解细胞间的相互作用将是重要的，这些细胞相互作用在发育过程中指导突触的形成，而突触形成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.