Genetisch codierte optische Sensoren des neuronalen Membran-potenzials: Was sind die Perspektiven für die hochauflösende Messung elektrischer Signale in kortikalen Hirnstrukturen?

The research on the function of neuronal cortical circuits is in need for experimental methods to monitor electrical activity of large neuronal assemblies in brain tissue. This demand motivates the development of genetically-encoded voltage-sensitive fluorescent proteins (VSFPs) for the detection of electrical potentials in nerve cells. All currently known VSFPs were developed as protein fusions between components from voltage-gated membrane proteins and fluorescent proteins. The VSFP proteins with the best performance so far (VSFP2 and VSFP3 families) comprise a domain from a voltage-gated phosphatase of the ascidian ciona intestinalis. We describe the current status of development of these proteins with regard to applications in high-resolution, real-time imaging of electrical activity in large-scale networks of cortical neurons.