title: Neurobiology tools: flashdancing worms.
abstract: The functional analysis of neuronal circuitry would be facilitated if researchers were able to control, over extended periods of time, the activity of genetically defined populations of neurons in vivo. New work using light-gated cation channels from green algae offers hope that this might soon be possible.
authors.affiliation: European Neuroscience Institute-Goettingen, Germany. ssigris@gwdg.de
authors.forename: Stephan J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Sigrist
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000378:metabolism*; D016825:Chlamydomonas reinhardtii / Q000737:chemistry*; D009446:Neurobiology / Q000379:methods*; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D025603:Sensory Rhodopsins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D025603:Sensory Rhodopsins