Ali Naqvi, Nicole Forman, Colleen Malone, Andrew Nguyen and Seamus Wolfe

Abstract:

Animal behavior depends in part on neuronal signaling generated by ions flowing through transmembrane channel proteins. Hundreds of channel types, whose structure is strongly conserved across animal species, have been identified and categorized into various structural families. This semester, we focused on members of the EAG (ether-a-go-go) potassium channel family in the nervous system of the medicinal leech. In this poster, we correlate mRNA sequences of eight putative EAG channels with their corresponding genes identified in a newly completed Hirudo verbana genome (courtesy of D. Weisblat). We also present results obtained with three RNA probes designed to target specific EAG transcripts using in situ hybridization in intact ganglia.