Marine Aquarium Facility for Support of Neuroscience Research

该提案要求为中央海洋水族馆设施的运营提供资金，该设施作为海洋生物医学研究所和加尔维斯顿德克萨斯大学其他部门正在进行的七个研究项目的共享核心资源。这些实验室从事神经科学的基础研究，研究由水族馆收集和/或饲养的脊椎动物和无脊椎水生物种的解剖学、电生理学和生物物理学、药理学、生物化学和行为等方面。项目 包括:研究天然和人工合成的产蛋相关肽对猕猴桃特定神经元的电生理和药理作用；研究鲶鱼视网膜水平细胞上谷氨酸和多巴胺的节律性游泳行为背后的神经回路的电生理和行为；利用黄貂鱼对前庭运动调节进行解剖和电生理研究；对一种新型多肽递质的鉴定和作用进行生化和电生理研究，该递质影响心房腺和中枢神经系统神经元中多肽的加工，从而调节产卵并影响袋细胞神经内分泌系统；免疫细胞化学、生物化学和生理研究的中心神经元调节袋细胞的活动。该设施还支持涉及七鳃鳗和黄貂鱼脊髓运动神经调节的电生理、形态学和药理学分析的项目。

This proposal requests funding for the operation of a centralized marine aquarium facility that serves as a shared, core resource for seven ongoing research projects at the Marine Biomedical Institute and other departments of the University of Texas, Galveston. These laboratories are engaged in basic research in the neural sciences, studying aspects of anatomy, electrophysiology and biophysics, pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior in vertebrate and invertebrate aquatic species collected by and/or maintained in the aquarium. Projects include: studies on the electrophysiological and pharmacological effects of natural and synthetic egg-laying-related peptides on identified neurons in Aplysia, electrophysiological and behavioral studies to identify and characterize the neuronal circuits that underlie rhythmic swimming behavior in glutamate and dopamine on isolated horizontal cells from the retina of catfish, anatomical and electrophysiological studies on vestibular modulation of locomotion using stingrays, biochemical and electrophysiological studies on the identification and actions of a novel peptide transmitter in Aplysia that influences the processing of peptides in the atrial gland and CNS neurons that regulate egg laying and influence the bag cell neuroendocrine system, and immunocytochemical, biochemical and physiological studies of central neurons in Aplysia that regulate bag cell activity. The facility also supports projects that are involved with electrophysiological, morphological, and pharmacological analyses of the neural regulation of locomotion in lamprey and stingray spinal chord.