When nerve cells can’t make contact

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Neuroligin-1 nerve cells in a culture (coloured red). One of the nerve cells has been manipulated genetically so that it creates a green fluorescent neuroligin-1 variation. Especially in the magnified section on the right below it is clearly visible ...
Neuroligin-1 nerve cells in a culture (coloured red). One of the nerve cells has been manipulated genetically so that it creates a green fluorescent neuroligin-1 variation. Especially in the magnified section on the right below, it is clearly visible that neuroligin-1 (green) can be found in the postsynaptic "thorns," which protrude "fungus-like" from the dendrite surface. Image: Thomas Dresbach (Univ. Heidelberg) / Nils Brose (MPI for Experimental Medicine)

Using an animal model, brain researchers in Göttingen have examined the effects of mutations that cause autism in humans. These are mutations in the genes which carry the building instructions for proteins in the neuroligin family. The study published in the scientific journal Neuron (September 21, 2006) shows that neuroligins ensure that signal transmission between nerve cells functions. In the brain of genetically altered mice without neuroligins, the contact points at which the nerve cells communicate, the synapses, do not mature. The researchers assume that similar malfunctions are experienced by autistic patients.


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