Genetic Analysis of Synaptic Transmission in Drosophila

作为负责控制我们的动作、感官和意识的器官系统，神经系统必须能够快速处理信息，并在整个有机体中快速传输这些信息。为了满足这些需求，复杂的神经细胞网络，就像计算机中的电子网络一样，利用电力进行信息处理和传输。传递发生在两个神经细胞之间的特殊接触部位，称为突触，通常由称为化学突触传递的复杂过程介导。因此，了解化学突触传递对于理解基本上所有神经过程的基本机制是至关重要的。在果蝇的神经系统中，电信号的传输方式与脊椎动物非常相似。重要的是，果蝇还可以接受多种实验方法的强大组合，包括经典的遗传分析、重组DNA技术和化学突触传递的功能分析。这里提出的这项工作利用了一类引人注目的果蝇突变体，在这种突变体中，只需改变温度，就可以在任何需要的时间关闭特定蛋白质的功能。这项工作的最终目标是通过询问当这些蛋白质的功能受到干扰时，这一过程是如何变化的，以了解这些蛋白质在化学突触传递中的作用。在果蝇身上取得的进展有望直接导致对我们自己神经系统的更好理解。最近完成的果蝇基因组序列强调了这一点，这进一步建立了涉及人类神经系统功能和病理的基因的显著进化保守。这种强大的进化保守性和果蝇作为实验系统的非凡力量相结合，为研究神经功能的分子机制提供了独特的机会。

Ordway9986990As the organ system responsible for controlling our movements, our senses, and our consiousness, the nervous system must be capable of rapid information processing and rapid transmission of that information throughout the organism. To meet these demands, complex networks of nerve cells, like electrical networks in computers, use electricity for information processing and transmission. Transmission occurs at specialized sites of contact between two nerve cells, called synapses, and is typically mediated by a complex process called chemical synaptic transmission. Thus understanding chemical synaptic transmission is essential to an understanding of fundamental mechanisms underlying essentially all neural processes. In the nervous system of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, electrical signals are transmitted in a manner quite similar to that in vertebrates. Importantly, Drosophila is also amenable to a powerful combination of experimental methods including classical genetic analysis, recombinant DNA technology, and functional analysis of chemical synaptic transmission. The work proposed here utilizes a remarkable class of Drosophila mutants in which the function of a specific protein can be turned off at any desired time simply by changing the temperature. The ultimate goal of this work is to understand the role of these proteins in chemical synaptic transmission by asking how the process changes when their function is perturbed.The progress made in Drosophila is expected to lead directly to a better understanding of our own nervous system. This is emphasized by the recent completion of the Drosophila genome sequence, which has further established striking evolutionary conservation of genes involved in the function and pathology of the human nervous system. The combination of this strong evolutionary conservation and the remarkable power of the fruit fly as an experimental system provide a unique opportunity to investigate the molecular mechanisms of neural function.