Pilot grant to determine the transcription factor code that specifies CiA interneurons

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In this one-year research grant we will determine which genes are involved in making a specific population of spinal cord nerve cells, called CiAs, in zebrafish embryos. CiAs are made, and function in very similar ways to V1 nerve cells in mammals, so our findings should also be relevant to humans. This research is important because the more we learn about how different neurons are made, the more likely we are to be able to develop treatments for neurological diseases or spinal cord injuries. For example, once we know which genes specify particular neurons we can use this information to instruct stem cells to grow into those neurons.We will exploit the cell biology and genetics of zebrafish embryos to identify CiAs in live embryos and determine which genes control their particular characteristics (e.g. shape of the nerve cell, what other nerve cells it communicates with and the chemicals that it uses to communicate). We have already identified two genes that are important for instructing CiAs to acquire their particular characteristics. These genes encode transcription factors (proteins that are responsible for turning other genes on and off). IIn this one-year project, we aim to identify all of the other transcription factors that are present in CiAs, so that we can start to analyse their individual and combined functions in making these nerve cells.