Neuron-specific Phosphoproteins as Models for Neuronal Gene Expression

Abstract

Recent advances in molecular biology have led to the determination of the general features of eukaryotic genes and to an understanding of the processes required for the expression of these genes as mature polypeptide-coding mRNAs. It is now possible to determine the level at which the regulation of gene expression occurs—at transcription, processing, mRNA stability, or translation. A topic of much current interest in developmental neurobiology is the investigation of the molecular mechanisms that regulate the expression of genes coding for neuron-specific proteins. This interest arises from the observation that the nervous system is composed of a great number of different cell types that exhibit a complex array of interconnections and functions and from the inference that this diversity must require the modulation of gene expression.