The growth, differentiation and survival of nerve cells, or neurons, depend upon signals exchanged between them and the structures they innervate with synaptic contacts. A protein that is believed to be important in synapse formation is agrin. This project exploits a well-known neuromuscular synapse in the eye, and a novel technique for molecular analysis of single neurons to examine the control of the expression of the genes which produce agrin. Molecular and cellular biological techniques allow examining changes in agrin expression during development, and the origins within single cells of the four alternatively spliced messenger-RNA sequences involved in the expression. Results will be important to understanding cell-cell interactions that direct synapse formation during development, which is fundamental to organization of the nervous system.
