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The authors describe cell-based neurotransmitter fluorescent engineered reporters (CNiFERs), a new biosensor for monitoring neurotransmitter receptor activation. CNiFERs are cells engineered to express both a metabotropic receptor that triggers the Gq protein–coupled receptor cascade to increase calcium concentrations and a genetically encoded fluorescent calcium sensor for visualization.
Until now, no tools existed to selectively manipulate the small number of sparsely distributed neurons activated during a drug-related learned behavior. Here the authors describe a new method for selectively inactivating only those neurons activated by cocaine in an environment repeatedly paired with drug injections.
The mosaic analysis with repressible cell markers (MARCM) technique allows for lineage tracing in Drosophila. Here, the authors report an improvement on this technique, twin-spot MARCM, which permits high-resolution lineage tracing of both sister clones.
