Transgenfc Strategies for Combinatorial Expression of Fluorescent Proteins in the Nervous System

摘要

In this work by Livet and coworkers, a novel approach to mapping neural circuits was designed, Fluorescent proteins emitting different colors were expressed in,a combinatorial and stochastic manner in neurons. Specifically, the Cre/lox recombination system was used in this study, Four fluorescent proteins were initially constructed from a single Brainbow-1 or Brainbow-2 transgene. The constructs were expressed in transgenic mice which were crossed with other transgenes to induce the production of an array of genes expressing different colors, The inner granular layer (IGL) of the cerebellum of the mice was then subjected to circuit tracing, It was discovered that the quantitative features that used to be inaccessible were successfully visualized with the aid of the fluorescent proteins, which created as many as 90 distinguishable colors, as shown in Figure 1. Moreover, the color profiles of other neuronal processes gave similar information that will facilitate the tracing process, Glial interactions with neurons were also analyzed, and the functional characteristics of the different cells were identified.