Analysis of MLR-hindbrain-spinal cord pathway regulating swim speed of zebrafish

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26830025
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Neurophysiology / General neuroscience
• Research Institution: National Institute for Basic Biology (2016); Okazaki Research Facilities, National Institutes of Natural Sciences (2014-2015)
• Principal Investigator: KIMURA Yukiko 基礎生物学研究所, 神経行動学研究部門, 助教 (70581122)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: ゼブラフィッシュ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR) is a functionally defined area that is associated with the control of vertebrate locomotion. It is suggested MLR plays a role in controlling speed of locomotion. MLR neurons project to reticulospinal neurons in the hindbrain, and the reticulospinal neurons project to the spinal cord. However, it is unclear what types of neurons are making up this pathway. In this project, I planned to reveal this problem by using zebrafish because zebrafish are useful models for genetic studies and have a simple nervous system. However, we could not identify the zebrafish MLR neurons within the project period, so we could not elucidate what types of neurons constitute the MLR-hindbrain-spinal pathway. However, we were able to develop a new efficient method for transgenic fish generation during the process of this project.

Free Research Field

神経科学