This application requests one-half of the funds to purchase a JEM-1200EXII electron microscope. The remaining cost of the microscope will be provided in matching funds from the School of Basic Life Sciences at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. This will be part of a multiuser, multidisciplinary facility in the School. Core users with Federal grant support will immediately benefit from the presence of this microscope since this equipment is important to a number of on-going and planned investigations. The availability of this instrumentation will facilitate studies of: 1.) muscle thick filament structure in different vertebrate classes; 2.) the structural framework for the innervation of the intermediate lobe of the pituitary by GABA and/or DA containing neurons; 3.) the sensitivity to ethanol of single cerebellar neurons; 4.) the mechanisms involved in expression of acetylcholinesterase and cholinergic innervation of the heart, both in the adult and during development; 5.) heme and iron binding proteins and transport; 6.) the assembly of viruses and nucleoproteins; and 7.) ion channels in the basolateral membrane of renal tubules. These projects will all benefit significantly from the presence of an electron microscope in the School of Basic Life Sciences, since no such instrumentation is currently available in the School, and is vitally needed to support not only these studies but future studies which will arise from the rapid growth in research faculty in the School. The University is committed to the support of the research program in the School, and will provide both space and the necessary facilities for the installation and long-term operation of the equipment.
