Motoneuronal development in zebrafish

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The ability of an animal to move and to interact with its environment requires that motoneurons correctly innervate specific muscles. The research in my laboratory is designed to address fundamental questions about the development of motoneurons and the motor circuit. Many aspects of nervous system development are highly conserved among species and zebrafish offer several advantages as model to study neurodevelopment processes. The primary focus of my research program is to understand how motoneurons grow, contact and communicate with muscles in young nervous systems to form the locomotor network. We are particularly interested in understanding a) how motor axons grow and form contacts with muscles, and b) the factors that determine how the nerve muscle connections become activated and are maintained in order to relay information for movement. More specifically, we are determining the role of proteins that are associated with developing motoneurons, and how their activity influences the development of the synaptic contacts between motoneurons and muscles. This is an important area of research in developmental neurobiology, because it gives us a much better understanding of neuronal development, and how the nervous system forms in young embryos. We anticipate that our studies will provide important information required for an in depth understanding of the mechanisms involved in motor circuits formation for locomotion in vertebrates.