Identification of α-chimaerin as a candidate gene for critical period neuronal plasticity in cat and mouse visual cortex.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In cat visual cortex, critical period neuronal plasticity is minimal until approximately 3 postnatal weeks, peaks at 5 weeks, gradually declines to low levels at 20 weeks, and disappears by 1 year of age. Dark rearing slows the entire time course of this critical period, such that at 5 weeks of age, normal cats are more plastic than dark reared cats, whereas at 20 weeks, dark reared cats are more plastic. Thus, a stringent criterion for identifying genes that are important for plasticity in visual cortex is that they show differences in expression between normal and dark reared that are of opposite direction in young versus older animals.

Results

The present study reports the identification by differential display PCR of a novel gene, α-chimaerin, as a candidate v

SUBMITTER: Yang CB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3155490 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature