Neuroscience Techniques Flashcards
What is fluorescence?
Light is absorbed and re-emitted at a different wavelength
What is luminescence?
Light given off by a biochemical reaction
What is GFP/eGFP?
(enhanced) Green Fluorescent Protein
First found in jellyfish, now the gene is used to visualise proteins in a cell
What is mGFP?
Monomeric green fluorescent protein
Doesn’t polymerise in situ, which is good because otherwise this would disrupt the proteins we are trying to view
Non-monomeric protein might dimerise
What is widefield microscopy? (and 1 pro and 1 con)
Basically collects light emitted from GFP
Has a high resolution, but limited information about depth
What is confocal microscopy?
Uses a laser to focus on specific depths, and detect light from specific focal planes
The images collected can be combined to form a 3D image of a cell
Cons of confocal microscopy
More expensive than widefield, and takes a long time
What is phase contrast microscopy?
Detects phase shifts in light (which are usually invisible) and shows it as variation in brightness
Pros of phase contrast microscopy
Good for viewing cellular components that are not visible with a brightfield microscope
Don’t have to kill the cells - can study them whilst they are still living
Cheap and easy
Cons of phase contrast microscopy
Only good for viewing components with high contrast
3 animals that can be used as brain models
Mice/rats
Frogs
Fruit fly
Pros of mice as brain models
Similar cortical structure to human brain
Conservation of genes between mammals
Cons of mice as brain models
Tight regulations on living conditions
Expensive
Pros of frogs as brain models
Produce hundreds of oocytes
Conservation of genes between vertebrates
Cons of frogs as brain models
Non-mammalian
