SGER: Calcium and Excitation of Isolated Drosophila Photoreceptors

视觉生理学和生物化学中一个尚未解决的核心问题是：光是如何引起视网膜中神经信号的产生的？这个过程被称为“视觉转导”。在转导过程中产生的神经信号由视网膜中的高级细胞进一步处理和编码，并最终在大脑中进行编码。遗传学、生物化学和电生理学方面令人兴奋的新发展使果蝇视觉系统成为研究视觉转导的新模型。这个优雅简单的实验系统有望在我们对生物信号的生理和生物化学的理解方面取得快速进展。特别是，本研究将通过研究分离的光感受器制备，为视觉转导中关键的细胞内事件提供新的科学描述。利用光诱导将钙离子引入单个光感受器的细胞内空间，也将使该模型制备中的各种重要问题得到解答，这将对理解通常在其他物种中发生的视觉转导过程具有重要意义。

A central unresolved question in visual physiology and biochemistry is: How does light cause the creation of nerve signals in the retina? This process is called "visual transduction." Nerve signals generated during transduction are further processed and encoded by higher-order cells in the retina and ultimately, in the brain. Exciting new developments in genetics, biochemistry, and electrophysiology have made the Drosophila (fruit fly) visual system a new model preparation with which to examine visual transduction. This elegantly simple experimental system promises to yield rapid advances in our understanding of the physiology and biochemistry of biological signalling. In particular, this research will offer a new scientific description of crucial intracellular events in visual transduction, by studying the isolated photoreceptor preparation. Using light- induced introduction of calcium ions into the intracellular space of a single photoreceptor will also enable a variety of significant questions to be answered in this model preparation that will have major significance for understanding the processes of visual transduction that occur, generally, in other species.