Control of Growth Within Drosophila Peripheral Nerves by Ras and Protein Kinase A

摘要

The long term goals of this research are to understand the mechanisms by which NF1 and its partners control growth using the Drosophila peripheral nerve as our assay system. This system is advantageous because we can apply a number of powerful molecular genetic methodologies that are not available in other systems. Our major findings were generated from aim no. 4. We reported after year 2 that Ras nonautonomously activates perineurial glial growth via PI3 Kinase, Akt and FOXO (published in the Journal of Neuroscience in 2007). Second, we report preliminary evidence that pushover (push) acts in the glia to regulate perineurial glial growth, but in the neuron to regulate excitability. Third, we report that activation of the Tor pathway is necessary but not sufficient to increase perineurial glial growth. Fourth, we report that the metabotropicglutamate receptor regulates neuronal growth and excitability via PI3K.