Red Headed

Cells known as inhibitory interneurons help to control signals in the brain, quieting some but leaving others. Scientists study these cells in mice by giving them a coloured fluorescent tag, which makes them light up under a microscope. GABAergic interneurons, so called because they signal using a molecule called GABA, have only ever been tagged green. Making a mouse with different neuron types tagged in different colours can help to distinguish them and study how they interact, so scientists recently developed a mouse that had GABAergic neurons tagged in red. They did this by getting the cells to produce the red tag, called tdTomato, alongside the machinery that makes GABA. This means that only the neurons that use GABA make tdTomato. The image shows a slice through a mouse brain, with GABAergic neurons in red and another kind of inhibitory interneuron, in green.

Written by Esther Redhouse White

Esther Redhouse White

Writer

A recent Biochemistry graduate from York, Esther has worked on bacterial killing proteins and genetic switches in worms. In her spare time she likes visiting museums full of skeletons.

• Image from work by Stephanie Besser and colleagues
• Carl-Ludwig-Institut for Physiology, University of Leipzig, Germany
• Originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Research published in PLOS One, June 2015