Turn-ons and turn-offs f...( can be avoided by making neurons produ...)

can be avoided by making neurons produce high levels of gene-specific activators which facilitate un-silencing of previously silenced genes. These findings have important implications in experimental research that makes use of reversible gene expression tools to switch genes on and off. Neuroscientists need such gene switches to investigate the cause-and-effect relationship between gene activity, neuronal physiology, and animal behavior. Hence, this new research is an important step in both the development of highly reliable gene-switches for experimental neuroscience and in our understanding of mechanisms governing gene regulation in the brain. Indeed, the epigenetic mechanisms in charge of switching genes on or off play an essential role when our brain learns and stores information, and when our brain reacts to injury and disease.

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Contact: Mazahir Hasan
Mazahir.Hasan@mpimf-heidelberg.mpg.de
Public Library of Science
19-Jun-2007

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