Development and Engineering of Dopamine Neurons

The neurotransmitter dopamine has just celebrated its 50th birthday. The discovery of dopamine as a neuronal entity in the late 1950s disease. The chapters presented in this book provide an overview of the different stages that are distinguished during mdDA neuronal development. Chapter 1 discusses the dopamine systems of the zebrafish, being a powerful model organism for genetic intervention on the developmental programming of neuronal systems. In Chapter 2 an overview is presented of dopamine systems that are present in the vertebrate CNS. Chapters 3-6 discuss the early specification of dopamine precursors and the programs that lead to terminal differentiation. In Chapters 7 and 8 the maintenance of dopamine neurons is discussed with a special emphasis on neurotrophic support. The specific connectivity of the dopamine system and the axon guidance rules that apply to developing dopamine neurons are described in Chapter 9. An overview of ES-cell engineering of dopamine neurons is presented in Chapters 10 and 11. The research directed towards unraveling the molecular programming of mdDA neurons continues to be highly exciting. One may expect that novel biological principles will continue to emerge from this population of neurons. In the near future the field as a whole will mature towards a more comprehensive understanding of mdDA neuronal development and network integration, and will continue to apply knowledge of dopamine neuron development and function to the treatment of human disease.