Showing papers by "Pavel M. Balaban published in 1994"

Nervous system and neural maps in gastropod Helix lucorum L.

Abstract: The present review summarizes the literature and provides new data concerning nervous system structure and the identification of individual neurons in the snail Helix lucorum. Information about especially well-known neurons is provided in a table, and maps of the identifiable neuron's location in ganglia are correlated with the results of retrograde staining via various cerebral and subesophageal nerves. References concerning the morphology of snail central nervous system and identifiable neurons are given.

Behavioral plasticity in a snail and its neural mechanisms.

Abstract: This paper reviews the behavioral and neural mechanisms of habituation, sensitization, environmental condition, and food-aversion conditioning in the snail helix. The possible participation of motivational systems and changes in plasticity during development are discussed.

Novel gene HCS1 is specifically expressed in the giant interneurones of the terrestrial snail

Abstract: THE terrestrial snail Helix lucorum is a promising model for molecular neurobiology since its central nervous system (CNS) is simple and contains many morphologically and functionally identified large neurones. Among these, the giant interneurones located in pleural and parietal ganglia are especially interesting because they trigger the withdrawal behaviour of the snail and participate in aversive conditioning. Here we describe the identification and characterization of a gene named HCS1 which is preferentially expressed in these interneurones. It encodes a putative protein 100 amino acids long containing an N-terminal hydrophobic leader peptide. No sequences with significant homology to HCS1 were found in the protein (Swiss-Prot) and nucleotide (EMBLbank) data libraries. We suppose that the product of this gene is a secreted protein, presumably a neuropeptide or a growth factor.