Journal article
New Approaches for Studying Synaptic Development, Function, and Plasticity Using Drosophila as a Model System
The Journal of neuroscience, Vol.33(45), pp.17560-17568
11/06/2013
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3261-13.2013
PMCID: PMC3818537
PMID: 24198346
Abstract
The fruit fly
Drosophila melanogaster
has been established as a premier experimental model system for neuroscience research. These organisms are genetically tractable, yet their nervous systems are sufficiently complex to study diverse processes that are conserved across metazoans, including neural cell fate determination and migration, axon guidance, synaptogenesis and function, behavioral neurogenetics, and responses to neuronal injury. For several decades,
Drosophila
neuroscientists have taken advantage of a vast toolkit of genetic and molecular techniques to reveal fundamental principles of neuroscience illuminating to all systems, including the first behavioral mutants from Seymour Benzer's pioneering work in the 1960s and 1970s, the cloning of the first potassium channel in the 1980s, and the identification of the core genes that orchestrate axon guidance and circadian rhythms in the 1990s. Over the past decade, new tools and innovations in genetic, imaging, and electrophysiological technologies have enabled the visualization,
in vivo
, of dynamic processes in synapses with unprecedented resolution. We will review some of the fresh insights into synaptic development, function, and plasticity that have recently emerged in
Drosophila
with an emphasis on the unique advantages of this model system.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- New Approaches for Studying Synaptic Development, Function, and Plasticity Using Drosophila as a Model System
- Creators
- C. Andrew Frank - Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa 52242Xinnan Wang - Stanford Institute for Neuro-innovation and Translational Neurosciences and Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California 94305Catherine A Collins - Department of Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109Avital A Rodal - Department of Biology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02453Quan Yuan - National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892Patrik Verstreken - VIB, Center for the Biology of Disease and KU Leuven, Department for Human Genetics, 3000 Leuven, Belgium, andDion K Dickman - Department of Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- The Journal of neuroscience, Vol.33(45), pp.17560-17568
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- DOI
- 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3261-13.2013
- PMID
- 24198346
- PMCID
- PMC3818537
- ISSN
- 0270-6474
- eISSN
- 1529-2401
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 11/06/2013
- Academic Unit
- Anatomy and Cell Biology; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984025357602771
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