Medial Amygdala Enhances Synaptic Transmission and Synaptic Plasticity in the Dentate Gyrus of Rats in Vivo.

Lateral specification, which is mediated by the neurogenic genes of the Notch pathway, has been shown to play an important role in the Drosophila nervous system.Due to lateral inhibition only a single cell in each proneural cluster eventually delaminates and differentiates as a neuroblast while the rest adopt an epidermal fate.Recently, Notch homologues have been identified in various vertebrates , including Xenopus , mouse, and human.However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying cell fate choices in vertebrate.Genetic tests in transgenic mice have proved difficult for technical reasons .As a first step towards a test of the hypothesis that a genetic network similar to that invo lv ed in Drosophila neurogenesis also operates in vertebrate, and participates in similar cell fate decisions, we have isolated eDNA clones that encode Notch homologues in zebrafish , a powerful tool for the study of the vertebrate development.We found that the distinct expression of Notch homologues correlate with various patterning and differentiation processes during embryogenesis, including the formation of the neural plate.We injected activated Notch constructs tagged with a viable marker, green fluorescent protein (GFP), into zebrafish embryos in order to examine their functional roles in neurogenesis and somitogenesis.