Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Windows for molecular signals!

Researchers seem to have uncovered key insights into the origins of depression, schizophrenia and insomnia, by examining the unlikeliest of candidates: WORMS!

The eyeless microscopic worm known as C. elegans that shies away from certain kinds of light have restored normal levels of movement in them to ultraviolet light! The light reaction to a tiny molecular sensor encoded by a gene they named LITE-1. This sensor doesn't resemble any other light sensors previously discovered.

This have paved a way that organisms can sense light, distinct from the previously known light-sensing mechanism used in the eye.It will be interesting to see whether the LITE-1 light-sensing mechanism will also lead to new insights into human sensory perception!

In spite of 35 years of intensive research by hundreds of labs studying these eyeless worms, no one had discovered that they can respond robustly to light.Although humans lack this ultraviolet light sensor, a window for understanding how the molecular signals in our nerve cells allow them to talk to one another to produce perceptions, behaviours, learning and memory!It will be a tool as we can use to solve the mysteries of nerve cell communication and could ultimately help us understand the biology of everything from sleep and memory to depression!

0 comments: