Lecture 2 Flashcards
List the 3 premises of the Cell Theory.
- All living organisms are composed of cells
- The cell is the basic unit of structure and organization in organisms
- All cells come from pre-existing cells
List the premise of the Reticular Theory of the nervous system.
- The nervous system is made up of a single contiguous network
What is the chemical name of the Golgi stain?
Potassium dichromate and silver nitrate
What does the Golgi stain do?
Randomly labels a subset of neurons
List the 3 premises of the Neuron Doctrine
- Neurons are the functional units of the nervous system
- Law of dynamic polarization (information travels from dendrites to axons)
- Neurons communicate via regions of cell-cell contact
List 3 issues with the Neuron Doctrine
- Extensive gap junctions in the CNS encroach upon the reticular theory
- Axons can act as dendrites, dendrites can act as axons (reciprocal synapses)
- Signals can travel against “polarity” (e.g. back-propagating action potentials)
Describe the mechanism of fluorescent dyes
Electrons of dyes absorb light and emit fluorescence as they drop back down to lower energy orbitals
Define anterograde transport
Dye injected into soma
Define retrograde transport
Dye applied to cut nerves
Define dye coupling
Dye travels through gap junctions
Define MitoTracker
Fluorescent dye labelling mitochondria
Define LysoTracker
Fluorescent dye labelling lysosomes
Define Phallacidin
Fluorescent dye labelling F-action
What is the role of antibodies in fluorescent labelling?
Labelling specific proteins
Define in situ hybridization
Detection of mRNA in tissues using antisense RNA (probe) + fluorescent dye
Define immuno-labelling
Detection of proteins in situ using antibodies (generated with epitopes) + fluorescent dye