From neurotransmitter to gene: identifying the missing links.
Survival demands adaptation to changes in the environment, and some of the most important adaptations are accomplished by the nervous system. Adaptive processes such as learning and memory are mediated by complex intracellular adjustments that result, at least in part, from changes in the levels of certain proteins. The involvement of neurotransmitters in the regulation of protein biosynthesis has recently become the focus of much investigation. Questions that are beginning to be explored include: how do neurotransmitters regulate the expression of specific genes in various cell populations? How can a gene product be regulated in opposing or coordinated fashion by different stimuli? How does a neurotransmitter exert differential regulatory influences in the same cell type under different growth conditions? Teresa Esterle and Elaine Sanders-Bush examine these questions with an emphasis on the studies that explore the ability of neurotransmitters to have diverse actions on the same target gene in different tissues or on different genes in the same cell.
Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232.
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D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents / Q000502:physiology*; D010641:Phenotype; D017981:Receptors, Neurotransmitter / Q000502:physiology; D015290:Second Messenger Systems / Q000502:physiology
D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents; D017981:Receptors, Neurotransmitter; D002118:Calcium