BIOL 1013 Lecture Notes - Nerve Growth Factor, Cytochrome C, Neuregulin
1 Feb 2013
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Development iv: function and mode of cell death in nervous system development. 4 functions of cell death: systems matching, error correction, sexual dimorphism, remove transient cells. Neuron death generally occurs during target recognition due to lack of trophic support from target tissue. Neurotrophic hypothesis: competition over limited supply of neurotrophic factor from target tissue leads to death of incorrectly targeted neurons. Many cells provide trophic support, but the major ones are target-derived. Glial cells also die during development, perhaps requiring trophic support from axons. Apoptosis is atp-dependent and is clean and controlled; necrosis is not. C. elegans worm is a classis system to study apoptosis; its genes are highly homologous to vertebrate apoptotic genes. Understand the role of bcl-2, bax, cytochrome c, apaf1, and caspases (fig. Nerve growth factor (ngf) is the prototypical neurotrophic growth factor. There are many families of growth factors that affect neurons; ngf will be our focus.
