Deciphering the Calcium Code: A Review of Calcium Activity Analysis Methods Employed to Identify Meaningful Activity in Early Neural Development.

The intracellular and intercellular flux of calcium ions represents an ancient and universal mode of signaling that regulates an extensive array of cellular processes. Evidence for the central role of calcium signaling includes various techniques that allow the visualization of calcium activity in living cells. While extensively investigated in mature cells, calcium activity is equally important in developing cells, particularly the embryonic nervous system where it has been implicated in a wide variety array of determinative events. However, unlike in mature cells, where the calcium dynamics display regular, predictable patterns, calcium activity in developing systems is far more sporadic, irregular, and diverse. This renders the ability to assess calcium activity in a consistent manner extremely challenging, challenges reflected in the diversity of methods employed to analyze calcium activity in neural development. Here we review the wide array of calcium detection and analysis methods used across studies, limiting the extent to which they can be comparatively analyzed. The goal is to provide investigators not only with an overview of calcium activity analysis techniques currently available, but also to offer suggestions for future work and standardization to enable informative comparative evaluations of this fundamental and important process in neural development.

The tweety Gene Family: From Embryo to Disease.

The tweety genes encode gated chloride channels that are found in animals, plants, and even simple eukaryotes, signifying their deep evolutionary origin. In vertebrates, the tweety gene family is highly conserved and consists of three members-ttyh1, ttyh2, and ttyh3-that are important for the regulation of cell volume. While research has elucidated potential physiological functions of ttyh1 in neural stem cell maintenance, proliferation, and filopodia formation during neural development, the roles of ttyh2 and ttyh3 are less characterized, though their expression patterns during embryonic and fetal development suggest potential roles in the development of a wide range of tissues including a role in the immune system in response to pathogen-associated molecules. Additionally, members of the tweety gene family have been implicated in various pathologies including cancers, particularly pediatric brain tumors, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Here, we review the current state of research using information from published articles and open-source databases on the tweety gene family with regard to its structure, evolution, expression during development and adulthood, biochemical and cellular functions, and role in human disease. We also identify promising areas for further research to advance our understanding of this important, yet still understudied, family of genes.