MONITORING CHANGES IN ACH RECEPTORS IN LIVING ANIMALS

这些研究的目的是为了更好地理解 突触后乙酰胆碱受体参与突触竞争 发生在脊椎动物的神经肌肉连接处。突触竞争， 这会导致在出生后发育过程中一些 突触建立得更早，是一种基本的，但知之甚少的 发生在整个发育中的神经系统的过程 在学习和记忆形成过程中也是如此。神经肌肉接头 提供对底层机制的无与伦比的访问。例如, 因为这是随着时间推移可以观察到的极少数突触之一 在活着的动物中，有可能遵循动态事件，如 突触的竞争直接在这个突触的原位。以前的工作有 提示突触后受体在 突触竞争。在这些研究中，突触竞争将是 随后在活体动物中使用复杂的图像处理和其他 将允许分析受体重排的技术。它 希望这些实验将有助于在很大程度上改变 突触竞争的理论问题转化为细胞问题 生物学。

The goal of these studies is to better understand the role of postsynaptic acetylcholine receptors in the synaptic competition that occurs at the vertebrate neuromuscular junction. Synaptic competition, which leads to the loss during postnatal development of some of the synapses established earlier, is a fundamental but poorly understood process occurring throughout the developing nervous system and perhaps also during learning and memory formation. The neuromuscular junction offers unparalleled access into the underlying mechanisms. For example, because this is one of very few synapses that can be observed over time in living animals, it is possible to follow dynamic events such as synaptic competition directly at this synapse in situ. Previous work has suggested postsynaptic receptors are regulated in an important way during synaptic competition. In these studies synaptic competition will be followed in living animals using sophisticated image processing and other techniques that will permit receptor rearrangements to be analyzed. It is hoped that these experiments will help transform the largely theoretical questions of synaptic competition into questions of cell biology.