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Altering electrical connections in the nervous system of the pteropod mollusc Clione limacina by neuronal injections of gap junction mRNA
Author(s) -
Kelmanson Ilya V.,
Shagin Dmitry A.,
Usman Natalia,
Matz Mikhail V.,
Lukyanov Sergey A.,
Panchin Yury V.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
european journal of neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.346
H-Index - 206
eISSN - 1460-9568
pISSN - 0953-816X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1460-9568.2002.02423.x
Subject(s) - gap junction , electrical synapses , neuroscience , biology , nervous system , intracellular , microbiology and biotechnology
Neurons can communicate with each other either via exchange of specific molecules at synapses or by direct electrical connections between the cytoplasm of either cell [for review see Bruzzone et al. (1996) Eur. J. Biochem ., 238 , 1–27]. Although electrical connections are abundant in many nervous systems, little is known about the mechanisms which govern the specificity of their formation. Recent cloning of the innexins – gap junction proteins responsible for electrical coupling in invertebrates (Phelan et al. (1998) Trends Genet ., 14 , 348–349], has made it possible to study the molecular mechanisms of patterning of the electrical connections between individual neurons in model systems. Here we demonstrate that intracellular injection of mRNA encoding the molluscan innexin Panx1 (Panchin et al . 2000 Curr. Biol., 10 , R473‐R474) drastically alters the specificity of electrical coupling between identified neurons of the pteropod mollusc Clione limacina .