Editor's Summary

1 November 2007

Over the brainbow

More than a century ago, Ramón Y Cajal's use of Golgi staining on nerve cells opened the door to modern neurobiology: by staining a small number of neurons, previously invisible axons and dendrites could be seen as they coursed through surrounding tissue. But Golgi staining can label only a small number of cells in one colour. Now, a team from Harvard University has developed a method that enables many distinct cells within a brain circuit to be viewed at one time. The 'Brainbow' technique can paint hundreds of individual neurons with distinctive hues, producing a detailed map of neuronal circuitry. This technology should not only boost mapping efforts in normal or diseased brains, but could also be applied to other complex cell populations, such as the immune system. The cover shows a portion of the hippocampus within a 'Brainbow' mouse. The multicoloured neurons of the dentate gyrus (bottom) lie beneath the cells of the arching CA1 region, while neurons of the cerebral cortex can be seen twinkling above.

Article: Transgenic strategies for combinatorial expression of fluorescent proteins in the nervous system

Jean Livet, Tamily A. Weissman, Hyuno Kang, Ryan W. Draft, Ju Lu, Robyn A. Bennis, Joshua R. Sanes & Jeff W. Lichtman

doi:10.1038/nature06293

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,870K) | Supplementary information