Paper AlertNeurobiology: Paper alert
Section snippets
Neuronal and glial cell biology
Selected by Morgan Sheng
Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Munc 13-1 is essential for fusion competence of glutamatergic synaptic vesicles. Augustin I, Rosenmund C, Sudhof TC, Brose N: Nature 1999, 400:457-461.
•• Significance: This mouse knockout study demonstrates the in vivo importance of Munc 13-1, a presynaptic phorbol-ester-binding protein, in presynaptic neurotransmitter release. Munc 13-1 seems to be required for fusion competence
Development
Selected by Andrew Lumsden, Lori Zeltser, Susan Chapman, Frank Schubert, Jon Gilthorpe and Richard Wingate
King’s College London, Guy’s Hospital, London, UK
Eph receptors and ephrins restrict cell intermingling and communication. Melitzer G, Xu Q, Wilkinson DG: Nature 1999, 400:77-81.
•• Significance: Provides a molecular basis for the phenomenon of differential affinity, whereby cell populations with complementary expression of Eph receptors and ephrin ligands remain discrete during development
Cognitive neuroscience
Selected by Mark Mayford
University of California—San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
Novelty acquisition is associated with induction of hippocampal long-term depression. Manahan-Vaughan D, Braunewell KH: Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1999, 96:8739-8744.
• Significanceows that during exploration of a novel environment, the ability to induce long-term depression (LTD) in the rat hippocampus is enhanced. This suggests a relationship between LTD and learning.
Findings: Electrodes were chronically implanted
Signalling mechanisms
Selected by Michael Häusser
University College London, London, UK
Munc13-1 is essential for fusion competence of glutamatergic synaptic vesicles. Augustin I, Rosenmund C, Südhof T, Brose N: Nature 1999, 400:457-461.
•• Significance: Identification of a presynaptic protein that is essential for exocytotic fusion of docked synaptic vesicles at most glutamatergic but not at GABAergic synapses. This provides direct evidence that central synaptic vesicles undergo a process of maturation, and indicates
Sensory systems
Selected by John N Wood
University College London, London, UK
TRP2: a candidate transduction channel for mammalian pheromone sensory signalling. Liman ER, Corey DP, Dulac C: Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1999, 96:5791-5796.
• Significance: The rat vomeronasal organ (VNO) has been found to express high levels of the cation channel TRP2 in sensory microvilli, raising the possibility that pheromone signalling involves a TRP channel. TRP channels have now been implicated in a variety of sensory processes,
Motor systems
Selected by James Ashe
Brain Sciences Center, VAMC, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Neural correlates of decision variables in parietal cortex. Platt ML, Glimcher PW: Nature 1999, 400:233-238.
•• Significance: The data suggest that the classic sensory–motor reflex of Sherrington is not an adequate model for the interpretation of sensory–motor processes in the cerebral cortex. Rather, cells in parietal cortex, at the interface between sensation and action, are correlated with decision variables best
Neurobiology of disease
Selected by Eugene P Brandon and Fred H Gage
The Salk Institute, San Diego, California, USA
Leukocyte infiltration, neuronal degeneration, and neurite outgrowth after ablation of scar-forming reactive astrocytes in adult transgenic mice. Bush TG, Puvanachandra N, Horner CH, Polito A, Ostenfeld T, Svendsen CN, Mucke L, Johnson MH, Sofroniew MV: Neuron 1999, 23:297-308.
•• Significance: While it is well established that reactive astrocytes hypertrophy and proliferate in response to CNS injury, the