Silent Partner

Helping us move everything from limbs to eyeballs, muscles receive electrical impulses from our brains at neuromuscular junctions – but sometimes these fizzling connections are broken. Here researchers investigate how damaged connections self-repair – a form of neuroplasticity – in fruit fly muscle fibres (highlighted in blue) each served by pairs of neurons (green). Switching on genes that cause one of the neurons in each pair to die, they use live cell imaging to see how the 'partner' cell reacts. Some neurons spread out their branches – helping to restore impulses back to the ailing muscle – while others don’t compensate as much or at all. Researchers believe this may be due to chemical signals sent from a neuron to its partner as it dies. Finding out how and when these signals are sent in human brains, where neuron networks are far more complex, might one day help with treating of neurodegenerative diseases.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image by Robert Carrillo, PhD, and Yupu Wang
• Department of Molecular Genetics & Cellular Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Journal of Neuroscience, February 2021