Mutant and Transgenic Tools in Modeling Schizophrenia

Animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders are important to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying these disorders as well as develop better treatment options. There has been tremendous progress made in the field of mouse genetics, and more recently in rats, to manipulate the genome in order to assess the impact of specific genetic manipulations on the animal. These approaches are particularly important as new genes are implicated in specific mental disorders allowing one to directly assess their relevance in a complete animal system. These genetic approaches in mice have also complemented and extended our understanding of pharmacological models of psychiatric diseases. This chapter will provide a brief overview of transgenic mice, knockout mice, as well as viral-mediated gene transfer approaches in neurobiology and provide select examples of how these approaches have contributed to our understanding of brain function with implications for molecular psychiatry.

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Transgenic tools for proteomic analysis of ciliary transport

Cilia ◽

10.1186/2046-2530-4-s1-p43 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 4 (S1) ◽

Author(s):

X Fang ◽

U Jokopii ◽

J Malicki

Keyword(s):

Proteomic Analysis ◽

Transgenic Tools

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Expression of Microbial Enzymes in Mammalian Astrocytes to Modulate Lactate Release

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11081056 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 1056

Author(s):

Barbara Vaccari Cardoso ◽

Iliana Barrera ◽

Valentina Mosienko ◽

Alexander V. Gourine ◽

Sergey Kasparov ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Neuronal Activity ◽

Lactate Production ◽

Lactate Oxidase ◽

Microbial Enzymes ◽

Lactate Release ◽

Vital Functions ◽

Cardiovascular Performance ◽

Transgenic Tools ◽

The Brain

Astrocytes support and modulate neuronal activity through the release of L-lactate. The suggested roles of astrocytic lactate in the brain encompass an expanding range of vital functions, including central control of respiration and cardiovascular performance, learning, memory, executive behaviour and regulation of mood. Studying the effects of astrocytic lactate requires tools that limit the release of lactate selectively from astrocytes. Here, we report the validation in vitro of novel molecular constructs derived from enzymes originally found in bacteria, that when expressed in astrocytes, interfere with lactate handling. When lactate 2-monooxygenase derived from M. smegmatis was specifically expressed in astrocytes, it reduced intracellular lactate pools as well as lactate release upon stimulation. D-lactate dehydrogenase derived from L. bulgaricus diverts pyruvate towards D-lactate production and release by astrocytes, which may affect signalling properties of lactate in the brain. Together with lactate oxidase, which we have previously described, this set of transgenic tools can be employed to better understand astrocytic lactate release and its role in the regulation of neuronal activity in different behavioural contexts.

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Window to the Fluorescence: The White Eye-Color Gene of Western Corn Rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera

10.1101/552935 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nathaniel Grubbs ◽

Fu-Chyun Chu ◽

Marcé D. Lorenzen

Keyword(s):

Diabrotica Virgifera Virgifera ◽

Western Corn Rootworm ◽

Corn Rootworm ◽

Diabrotica Virgifera ◽

Fluorescent Marker ◽

Eye Color ◽

Specific Variation ◽

Species Specific ◽

Transgenic Technologies ◽

Transgenic Tools

ABSTRACTEye-color mutations have proven useful in multiple insect species to help facilitate the development and use of transgenic tools for functional genomics. While there is species-specific variation in the pigments used to color insect eyes, every species studied thus far requires an ortholog of the ABC transporter gene white for proper pigmentation of the eyes. Previously, we generated transgenic western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, and found that their wild-type eye color obscured our ability to visualize a fluorescent marker driven by the widely used 3xP3 eye-specific promoter. Therefore, we sought to identify the D. v. virgifera ortholog of white (Dvvw). Here we report the discovery, cloning, and analysis of Dvvw cDNA and promoter. We also utilize RNA interference to knock down Dvvw mRNA in a transgenic strain, thereby demonstrating the utility of eye-color mutations when developing transgenic technologies.

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The Crustacean Model Parhyale hawaiensis

10.20944/preprints202106.0018.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mathilde Paris ◽

Carsten Wolff ◽

Nipam Patel ◽

Michalis Averof

Keyword(s):

Biological Diversity ◽

Developmental Stages ◽

Experimental Models ◽

Sensory Biology ◽

Wide Range ◽

Fertile Ground ◽

Parhyale Hawaiensis ◽

Terrestrial Habitats ◽

Marine Amphipod ◽

Transgenic Tools

Arthropods are the most abundant and diverse animals on earth. Among them, pancrustaceans are an ancient and morphologically diverse group, comprising a wide range of aquatic and semi-aquatic crustaceans as well as the insects, which emerged from crustacean ancestors to colonise most terrestrial habitats. Within insects, Drosophila stands out as one of the most powerful animal models, making major contributions to our understanding of development, physiology and behaviour. Given these attributes, crustaceans provide a fertile ground for exploring biological diversity through comparative studies. However, beyond insects, few crustaceans are developed sufficiently as experimental models to enable such studies. The marine amphipod Parhyale hawaiensis is currently the best established crustacean system, offering year-round accessibility to developmental stages, transgenic tools, genomic resources, and established genetics and imaging approaches. The Parhyale research community is small but diverse, investigating the evolution of development, regeneration, aspects of sensory biology, chronobiology, bioprocessing and ecotoxicology.

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