Martin W. Wessendorf, Principal Investigator

Heterodimerization of Central Nervous System Receptors

Pairs of different g-protein coupled receptors have been reported to heterodimerize. By doing so, they should exist within a few nanometers of each other. If these receptors do in fact heterodimerize, it should be possible to use light microscopy to detect single structures in the central nervous system that are labeled for both receptors.

These researchers have been able to detect single structures at the limit of resolution by confocal microscopy (i.e., smaller than 0.3 µm) that are labeled for two different types of receptors. However, reception could in principle be improved by deconvolving the confocal images. The researchers are using the resources of the Basic Science Computing Laboratory to deconvolve such images. Obtaining higher resolution images will improve their ability to test which receptors, if any, may exist as heterodimers and to determine their distributions.