Chapter 9 Genetic Approaches To Invertebrate Neurogenesis

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the genetic methods that have been applied to the study of invertebrate nervous systems. Genetic approaches to invertebrate neurogenesis have followed the two general directions. On the one hand, a few species for which isogenic strains are available have been studied to answer basic questions, such as (a) how invariant certain parameters of the nervous system among isogenic organisms are, (b) how invariant is the sequence of developmental events in these organisms is, and (c) how neurons, whose genes are identical, respond to altered developmental conditions. On the other hand, a number of mutations affecting nerve structure and function have been isolated in nematodes and insects, and some analyses of their development have been undertaken. The chapter reviews some of the exciting developments that are beginning to come out of this rather young field of neurobiology, a field that appropriately has been named “neurogenetics.” Various aspects of this field have been the subject of a number of recent reviews. Many of the questions addressed by the work on invertebrates are reviewed and explored on mouse mutants and chimeras.