RNA-associated introns guide nerve-cell channel production

BIOLOGY CLASS & ANATOMY CLASS
Here's an article that demonstrates the application of what we learned in class to medical conditions.

Biology class - Introns, those short segments of mRNA that cells remove (splice) from the molecule before moving into the cytoplasm because they do not code for any amino acids , or so we thought. Apparently "junk DNA" is not as useless as scientists thought, just like I said in class. ;-)

It seems on some cells (brain cells in this case) they DO have a function and the cells know when to retain them instead of "deleting" those nucleotides. Read the article and lets see if you can explain their function.

Anatomy class - We just finished discussing the nervous system. You learned (I hope!) that besides neurons we can find other types of cells (neuroglia) that work together to keep this system running smoothly. Based on the article and since you already took Biology and understand what introns and channel proteins are; What's the connection between these proteins and maintaining neuronal communication with the presence or absence of introns in these cells?

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that introns, or junk DNA to some, associated with RNA are an important molecular guide to making nerve-cell electrical channels. Senior author James Eberwine, PhD, Elmer Bobst Professor of Pharmacology, and lead authors Kevin Miyashiro, and Thomas J. Bell, PhD, both in Eberwine’s lab, report their findings in this week's early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In nerve cells, some ion channels are located in the dendrite, which branch from the cell body of the neuron. Dendrites detect the electrical and chemical signals transmitted to the neuron by the axons of other neurons. Abnormalities in the dendrite electrical channel are involved in epilepsy, neurodegenerative diseases, and cognitive disorders, among others. more

Source: Biology News Net