Neurodevelopment

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT ? Project 4.

Neurodevelopment The goal of this Project is to provide a developmental perspective to the overall goals of the Berghia Brain Project to understand the implementation of somatotopic, olfactory, and visual processing. These goals will be aided by investigation into the origin of the neurons involved.

Work on the developmental origin of identified neurons essentially stopped forty years ago and this project fills that gap in our knowledge. Project 4 will identify the embryonic cells that give rise to neurons in the central and peripheral nervous systems.

It will identify the genes that make these cells unique, and use that information to identify the regulatory information necessary to drive fluorescent fusion proteins in specific neurons.

These insights will expand our understanding of neurogenesis to molluscs, a diverse clad of organisms that has been relatively understudied, and thus holds potential for uncovering novel cellular and molecular mechanisms for nervous system development.