Ebook: Molecular Neurobiology: Recombinant DNA Approaches
Author: Robert Levenson Janet Rettig Emanuel Susan Garetz (auth.) Steve Heinemann James Patrick (eds.)
- Tags: Animal Anatomy / Morphology / Histology, Plant Sciences, Neurosciences
- Series: Current Topics in Neurobiology
- Year: 1987
- Publisher: Springer US
- Edition: 1
- Language: English
- pdf
This book is a collection of papers describing some of the first attempts to apply the techniques of recombinant DNA and molecular biology to studies of the nervous system. We believe this is an important new direction for brain research that will eventually lead to insights not pos sible with more traditional approaches. At first glance, the marriage of molecular biology to brain research seems an unlikely one because of the tremendous disparity in the histories of these two disciplines and the problems they face. Molecular biology is by nature a reductionist approach to biology. Molecular biologists have always tried to attack central questions in the most direct approach possible, usually in the most simple system available: a bacterium or a bacterial virus. Important experiments can usually be repeated quickly and cheaply, in many cases by the latest group of graduate students entering the field. The success of molecular biology has been so profound because the result of each important experiment has made the next critical question obvious, and usually answerable, in short order. Studies of the nervous system have a very different history. First, the human brain is what really interests us and it is the most complex structure that we know in biology. The central question is clear: How do we carry out higher functions such as learning and thinking? How ever, at present there is no widely accepted and testable theory of learn ing and no clear path to such a theory.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xvii
The Molecular Biology of the Na,K-ATPase and Other Genes Involved in the Ouabain-Resistant Phenotype....Pages 1-20
Molecular Biology of the Genes Encoding the Major Myelin Proteins....Pages 21-43
Molecular Biology of the Neural and Muscle Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors....Pages 45-96
Molecular Biology of Muscle Development....Pages 97-171
Small Cardioactive Peptides A and B....Pages 173-190
Molecular Biology Approach to the Expression and Properties of Mammalian Cholinesterases....Pages 191-224
Genes and Gene Families Related to Immunoglobulin Genes....Pages 225-257
Specificity of Prohormone Processing....Pages 259-291
Back Matter....Pages 293-297
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xvii
The Molecular Biology of the Na,K-ATPase and Other Genes Involved in the Ouabain-Resistant Phenotype....Pages 1-20
Molecular Biology of the Genes Encoding the Major Myelin Proteins....Pages 21-43
Molecular Biology of the Neural and Muscle Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors....Pages 45-96
Molecular Biology of Muscle Development....Pages 97-171
Small Cardioactive Peptides A and B....Pages 173-190
Molecular Biology Approach to the Expression and Properties of Mammalian Cholinesterases....Pages 191-224
Genes and Gene Families Related to Immunoglobulin Genes....Pages 225-257
Specificity of Prohormone Processing....Pages 259-291
Back Matter....Pages 293-297
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