Name Section Question 4 You work in a mouse lab, studying a colony of mutant mice with a depressed phenotype: they show little interest in eating don t interact with other mice and don t play with toys that you give them You decide to examine the brains of some of these mice, and look at a region of the brain previously shown to be important for good feelings You look at synapses in this region and find that the presynaptic axon terminals of cells in the mutant brain are filled with vesicles. You compare the number of vesicles in your mutant mouse with the number in a normal mouse, and find that there are significantly more vesicles in the mutant cell a)What process is may be affected by this mutation? b)What neurotransmitter is likely used to transmit signals in the network of neurons you are studying? c)Considering the neurotransmitter in(b), how does a mutation that affects the process in(a) explain the mutant mouse's behavior? d)Could a drug that inhibited the reuptake of the neurotransmitter at the synaptic cleft relieve the mouse's depressed symptoms? Why or why not? 7012Fall2003Name:___________________________________ Section:_____ 7.012 Fall 2003 5 Question 4 You work in a mouse lab, studying a colony of mutant mice with a depressed phenotype: they show little interest in eating, don’t interact with other mice, and don’t play with toys that you give them. You decide to examine the brains of some of these mice, and look at a region of the brain previously shown to be important for ‘good feelings’. You look at synapses in this region and find that the presynaptic axon terminals of cells in the mutant brain are filled with vesicles. You compare the number of vesicles in your mutant mouse with the number in a normal mouse, and find that there are significantly more vesicles in the mutant cell. a) What process is may be affected by this mutation? b) What neurotransmitter is likely used to transmit signals in the network of neurons you are studying? c) Considering the neurotransmitter in (b), how does a mutation that affects the process in (a) explain the mutant mouse’s behavior? d) Could a drug that inhibited the reuptake of the neurotransmitter at the synaptic cleft relieve the mouse’s depressed symptoms? Why or why not?