Cell: heavyweight! Scientists have successfully mapped all the proteins on the surface of neurons!

February 4, 2020 / BIOON / -- recently, an international magazine published in cell In the previous research report, scientists from Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute and other institutions developed a new method to focus on the proteins covered by special cells The relevant research results may help to clarify how brain cells form fine networks during the development of the body Now researchers can use this new technology to collect all the proteins on the surface of neurons in Drosophila's brain Meanwhile, researchers have found that 20 new molecules can participate in the development of neural connections in the brain Photo source: relevant research results of Liqun Luo may help researchers understand the molecular mechanism of neurons in the brain to form complex networks In this paper, researchers found for the first time that this new method of finding proteins can play a role in complete brain tissues, not just cells cultured in the laboratory This research is very important, because the tissue environment is very important for cell development, and the cell culture medium in the laboratory can not replicate it So far, scientists have not found a way to monitor all the egg whites on the cell surface in complex tissues such as brain, and the new technology developed by the researchers in this paper can fill this gap Researcher Matthias Mann said that what really shocked me was the follow-up biological research Now we can find a previously unknown special protein The cell surface is a dynamic and diverse place, especially the cell communication In the nervous system, the protein on the surface of the nerve cell can help the cells find each other and connect with each other Now researchers want to see that the brain of fruit fly development is straight They focused on the special proteins involved in the formation of olfactory network Olfactory network can control the olfactory perception of Drosophila The researchers used enzymes to label proteins of interest and nearby proteins, and then they identified a specific protein that was labeled by mass spectrometry According to Luo, they created a specific enzyme targeting protein for olfactory neurons at a specific stage of brain development in Drosophila, and then they compared the protein in adult cells with that in developing brain The results show that the difference between them is very striking The researchers identified 20 special proteins, which are abundant on the surface of developing neurons Then they knocked them out one by one to see whether the absence of these proteins would affect the neural network of the brain To the researchers' surprise, all 20 proteins were involved in the rewiring of the olfactory network of Drosophila In addition, many of them were involved in the rewiring of olfactory network It doesn't play a key role in neurodevelopment Li said that this new method can be used in the development of immunotherapy, but also help to understand the development of organs or simulate the progress of diseases For example, in cancer cells, the proteins on the cell surface will be changed Therefore, panoramic analysis of these proteins can help scientists understand the behavior of cancer cells in tissues Researchers are very interested in studying how neurons form precise connection patterns, which is of great significance for understanding the complex neural circuits behind behavior Researchers study the mammalian brain, not the Drosophila Therefore, this method must first be optimized for the mammalian, which is the goal that researchers have been difficult to achieve so far Original source: Jiefu Li, Shuo Han, Hongjie Li, et al Cell surface professional profiling in the fly brain uncovers wiring regulators, cell (2020) Doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.12.029