The analysis of the development and the function of cerebellar neural circuitry by using zebrafish

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25440104
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Developmental biology
• Research Institution: Nagoya University
• Principal Investigator: Shimizu Takashi 名古屋大学, 生物機能開発利用研究センター, 准教授 (50324760)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 小脳 / 神経発生 / ゼブラフィッシュ / 恐怖条件付け学習 / 顆粒細胞

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The cerebellum plays an important role for motor learning and classical fear conditioning. To understand the genes that control the generation of cerebellar granule cells and their axogenesis, I investigated two zebrafish mutants. The cranio facial development protein 1 gene controlled granule cell defferentiation by switching proliferation state to differentiation state in the precursors. The component of beaement-membrane, type IV collagens, regulated the axogenesis. I established a method for the classical fear conditioning paradigm by using zebrafish larva. The 20 days zebrafish larvae acquired the conditioned fear responses. Inhibition of granule-cell transmission impaired the recovery from conditioned responses. I found conditioning-dependent changes in granule cell encoding. There were two types of conditioning-associated neurons in the cerebellum. These results indicate that granule cells control the recovery from conditioned fear responses in zebrafish.

Free Research Field

発生生物学