A transgenic mouse model reveals fast nicotinic transmission in hippocampal pyramidal neurons.

The relative contribution to brain cholinergic signaling by synaptic- and diffusion-based mechanisms remains to be elucidated. In this study, we examined the prevalence of fast nicotinic signaling in the hippocampus. We describe a mouse model where cholinergic axons are labeled with the tauGFP fusion protein driven by the choline acetyltransferase promoter.

Relationship of virulence factor expression to evolved virulence in mouse-passaged Cryptococcus neoformans lines.

Serial passage of Cryptococcus neoformans in mice increases virulence relative to the nonpassaged line. Postpassaged lines showed no difference in the expression of most known virulence factors, with the exception that the more virulent lines had smaller capsules in vitro. These data imply that other mechanisms of virulence remain to be discovered.