| Project/Area Number |
05454662
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Nerve anatomy/Neuropathology
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| Research Institution | Okazaki National Research Institutes, National Institute for Basic Biology |
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Principal Investigator |
NODA Masaharu Okazaki National Research Institutes, National Institute for Basic Biology Division of Molecular Neurobilogy Professor, 基礎生物学研究所, 教授 (60172798)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1993 – 1995
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 1995)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,900,000)
Fiscal Year 1995: ¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
Fiscal Year 1994: ¥1,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000)
Fiscal Year 1993: ¥2,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,600,000)
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| Keywords | retina / tectum / neural connection / retrovirus vector / subtraction / レトロウィルスベクター / PCR |
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| Research Abstract |
Topographic maps of neuronal connectivity have been reported for various parts of the nervous system. In the visual system of birds, retinal ganglion cell axons from the nasal (anterior) retina connect to a caudal (posterior) part of the midbrain visual center, the optic tectum and temporal (posterior) retinal axons connect to the rostral (anterior) part, thereby establishing a point-to-point projection map. To elucidate the molecules required for construction of this map, we applied a subtractive hybridization technique, and found several genes (one from nasal, four from temporal) to be topographically expressed along the naso-temporal axis in the embryonic chicken retina. Among these position-specific molecules, two transcriptional regulators which belong to the winged-helix family are expressed in a mutually exclusive manner in either the nasal or temporal part of the retina. Misexpression of each factor in the retina using a retroviral vector causes misprojection on the tectum along the rostro-caudal axis. Our results provide direct evidence that topographic expression of these transcription factors controls formation of the topographic map for retinotectal connectivity. We are expecting to reveal the molecular bases of the specific neural connection in the retinotectal projection through investigation of the gene cascade starting from these two transcription factors.
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