HORMONAL MODULATION OF A COMMUNICATION SIGNAL

描述：（改编自研究者摘要）Zakon博士建议 以弱电鱼的通信信号为模型系统， 阐明离子电流如何调节及其重要性 规范行为。电器官放电（EOD） 性二态性、性别敏感性和个体差异性;波形 爆炸物处理量的变化与膜的性质密切相关， 输出运动系统中的细胞。调查人员希望了解 发射极中离子电流的大小和动力学-- 电细胞--塑造信号，以及它们如何被调节。他们特别 希望进一步表征延迟整流K+电流，了解 过程引起其动力学的系统性变化，以及这些变化是如何发生的。 可能受到性类固醇的调节。他们将测试电流的变化 动力学受磷酸化和/或转录控制的影响， 通道（即不同的通道基因，在单个通道内剪接或编辑） 通道基因或β亚基的表达）。此外，他们还将学习 K+和Na+电流的大小是如何被第二次共调节的 信使以及这如何导致信号幅度的变化 信号幅度的这些变化可能会影响 这些信号在鱼的环境中被接收的距离。 了解离子通道的功能和调节方式对我们的研究至关重要。 可兴奋细胞的基本知识，特别是离子功能障碍 在各种疾病中越来越多地认识到通道。

DESCRIPTION: (Adapted from the Investigator's Abstract) Dr. Zakon proposes to use the communication signal of a weakly electric fish as a model system to elucidate how ion currents are regulated and the significance of this regulation for behavior. The electric organ discharge (EOD) is sexually-dimorphic, hormone-sensitive, and individually-distinct; the waveshape of the EOD is intimately dependent on and reflective of the membrane properties of cells in the output motor system. The investigators wish to understand how the magnitudes and kinetics of the ion currents in the emitter--the electrocytes--shape the signal, and how they are regulated. In particular, they wish to characterize the delayed rectifying K+ current further, understand what processes give rise to the systematic variation in its kinetics, and how these may be regulated by sex steroids. They will test whether variation in current kinetics is influenced by phosphorylation and/or transcriptional control of the channel (i.e. different channel genes, splicing or editing within a single channel gene, or the expression of a beta subunit). In addition they will study how the magnitude of both the K+ and Na+ currents are co-regulated by second messengers and how this results in changes in the amplitude of the signal around the fish; these changes in signal amplitude likely influence the distance over which these signals are received in the fish's environment. Understanding how ion channels function and are regulated is critical to our fundamental knowledge of excitable cells, especially as malfunctions of ion channels are increasingly recognized in a variety of diseases.