The Sei Channel Is Broadly Expressed in the Fruit Fly Nervous System (IMAGE)
Caption
As suggested by its name, mutations in the gene seizure (sei for short) cause flies to become highly sensitive to heat stress. When ambient temperature goes up rapidly, wild type flies are able to escape these unfavorable conditions. In contrast, mutant flies are hypersensitive to heat and start seizing almost immediately. Hill et al. now show that the protective effect of sei comes from its activity in specific populations of neurons and glia cells in the fly brain. Shown are the neurons in the brain (top panel) and the ventral ganglion (bottom panel) (a structure homologous to the spinal cord), which express the sei protein (green). All other neurons are shown in magenta. The nuclei of all cells in the nerve cord are in blue.
Credit
Yehuda Ben-Shahar, Washington University in St. Louis
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