My research is concerned with the neural control of locomotory behaviors and the neural and hormonal control of reproductive activity in the marine mollusc Aplysia, a well-known model preparation for studies of neurobiology at the cellular and molecular levels.
Our most recent and major emphases are on: (a) identification and characterization of motoneurons, serotonergic modulatory neurons, command cells and a
central-pattern-generating circuit that participate in parapodial swimming
movements in A. brasiliana; (b) isolation, characterization and molecular
biological regulation of the receptors for reproductive, peptide hormones;
(c) the mechanism of action whereby these hormones control neurons and
reproductive organs involved in locomotion, egg laying and copulation; and
(d) determining the neural pathways involved in regulating the
neuroendocrine cells that produce egg-laying hormone.
B.A., Austin College, 1963 Ph.D., Yale University, 1967 Member, Marine Biomedical Institute Professor, Departments of Anatomy & Neurosciences
and Physiology & Biophysics
neurophysiological methods such as intra- and extracellular recording from nerve cells voltage clamp intracellular staining ionic and pharmacological aspects of synaptic function peptide biochemistry to study bioactive peptide production, release and function antibody production and immunocytochemistry analysis of crawling, swimming, egg laying and reproductive behaviors.
McPherson, D.R. and Blankenship, J.E. Neural control of swimming in Aplysia brasiliana. I. Innervation of parapodial muscle by pedal ganglion
motoneurons. J. Neurophysiol., 66:1338-1351, 1991. McPherson, D.R. and Blankenship, J.E. Neural control of swimming in Aplysia brasiliana. III. Serotonergic modulatory neurons. J. Neurophysiol.,
66:1366-1379, 1991 Choate, J.V.A., et al. Isolation of an egg-laying hormone-binding protein from the gonad of Aplysia californica and its localization in oocytes. J.Comp. Physiol. A., 173:475-483, 1993.