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Visualization of Selective Neural Pathways Succeeds
- New Avenue to the Elucidation of Brain Structure and Functions -
Laboratory for Neurobiology of Synapse |
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The Laboratory for Neurobiology of Synapse (Head, Dr. Yoshihiro Yoshihara) has succeeded by using genetic engineering techniques in visualization of selective neural pathways in the brain, such as olfactory, visual, and cerebellar efferent systems.
Knowledge on how neurons are interconnected with each other to establish the neural circuitry is indispensable for understanding the wide range of brain functions. Identification of the functional neural pathways is an important means to this end.
The laboratory has adopted a genetic engineering technique which, in place of simply injecting WGA (wheat germ agglutinin) as in conventional identification techniques, introduces WGA cDNA connected to specific promoters elements into mice so that the WGA is produced exclusively in the neurons that originate in the neural pathways of the functions to be studied.
This technique is regarded as being capable of the identification of the neural pathways of any selected function of any animal species, and one which is expected to have an extremely important impact on research into the understanding of brain functions and the elucidation and treatment of brain diseases.
The details of this study have been published in "Neuron" (a U.S. magazine) of January 29, 1999.
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Yoshihara, Y., Mizuno, T., Nakahira, M., Kawasaki, M., Watanabe, Y., Kagamiyama, H., Jishage, K., Ueda, O., Suzuki, H., Tabuchi, K., Sawamoto, K., Okano, H., Noda, T., Mori, K.
A Genetic Approach to Visualization of Multi-Synaptic Neural Pathways Using Plant Lectin Transgene
Neuron, 22, pp33-41, January (1999)
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| A Newly Developed WGA Transgene Technique |
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