Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior - NPB

NPB emphasizes the understanding of vital functions common to all animals. All animals perform certain basic functions - they grow, reproduce, move, respond to stimuli and maintain homeostasis. Read more...

Chairperson:
Gregg Recanzone

Manager (MSO):
Cynthia Roberts

Mailing Address:
Department of Neurobiology, Physiololgy, and Behavior
University of California, Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616

Department Office:
196 Briggs Hall
Phone: (530) 752-0203
Fax: (530) 752-5582

Undergraduate Advising:
188 Briggs Hall
EXB 530.752.2292
NPB 530.752.9696
Peer Advisors: 530.754.9406

LATEST NEWS

Keith Baar is one of the 2011 - 2012 Hellman Fellows. (Dateline - October 13, 2011)

Jim Trimmer's research featured on the cover of The Journal of Biological Chemistry (see the cover on the right).

Grace Rosenquist is featured in The Davis Enterprise: Young Scholars get a taste of college life.
(July 11, 2011)

Departmental Citations for Outstanding Performance are awarded to undergraduate students in the department who have achieved academic excellence and conducted true distinction in independent research under the guidance of our faculty. In addition, the students selected have achieved a grade point average of 3.6 overall and in their subject depth of their major.

James Shaffrath is a recipient of the Excellence in Education Award hosted by ASUCD. (California Aggie - May 26, 2011)

Alex Mogilner's research featured on the cover of Molecular Biology of the Cell (see the cover on the right).

Vice Provost Barbara Horwitz to step down from Academic Personnel (Dateline - Feb. 11, 2011)

John Wingfield elected as one of the new fellows in the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (Dateline - Jan. 14, 2011)

RECENT PUBLICATIONS:

Mogilner, A. Allard, J. Wollman, R. (2012). Cell polarity: Quantitative modeling as a tool in cell biology. Science. 336:175-179.

Bodine SC, Baar K. Analysis of skeletal muscle hypertrophy in models of increased loading. Methods Mol Biol. 2012;798:213-29.
PMID: 22130839.

Bollimunta A, Ditterich J (2012) Local computation of decision-relevant net sensory evidence in parietal cortex. Cereb Cortex 22:903-917.

Vinogradova T, Paul R, Grimaldi AD, Loncarek J, Miller PM, Yampolsky D, Magidson V, Khodjakov A, Mogilner A, Kaverina I., Concerted effort of centrosomal and Golgi-derived microtubules is required for proper Golgi complex assembly but not maintenance. Mol. Biol. Cell 23: 820-833 (2012).

Philp A, Hargreaves M, Baar K. More than a store: Regulatory roles for glycogen in skeletal muscle adaptation to exercise. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2012 Mar 6. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 22395109.

William T. Silkworth, Isaac K. Nardi, Raja Paul, Alex Mogilner, Daniela Cimini, Timing of centrosome separation is important for accurate chromosome segregation. Mol. Biol. Cell 23: 401-411 (2012).

Catherine I. Lacayo, Paula A. G. Soneral, Jie Zhu, Mark A. Tsuchida, Matthew J. Footer, Frederick S. Soo, Yu Lu, Younan Xia, Alexander Mogilner, and Julie A. Theriot, Choosing Orientation: Influence of Cargo Geometry and ActA Polarization on Actin Tails. Mol. Biol. Cell 23:614-629 (2012).

Watson ML, Baehr LM, Reichardt HM, Tuckermann JP, Bodine SC, Furlow JD. A cell autonomous role for the glucocorticoid receptor in skeletal muscle atrophy induced by systemic glucocorticoide exposure. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2012 Feb 21. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 22354783.

Ramenofsky, M., Cornelius, J.M., Helm, B. (2012) Physiological and behavioural responses of migrants to environmental cues, J. Ornithology, DOI: 10.1007/s10336-012-0817-3

Files DC, D'Alessio FR, Johnston LF, Kesari P, Aggarwal NR, Garibaldi BT, Mock JR, Simmers JL, Degorordo A, Murdoch J, Willis MS, Patterson C, Tanskersley CG, Messi ML, Liu C, Delbono O, Furlow JD, Bodine SC, Cohn RD, King LS, Crow MT. A Critical Role for Muscle Ring Finger-1 in Acute Lung Injury-Associated Skeletal Muscle Wasting. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2012 Feb 3. [Epub ahead of print]
PubMed PMID: 22312013.

Park SJ, Ahmad F, Philp A, Baar K, Williams T, Luo H, Ke H, Rehmann H, Taussig R, Brown AL, Kim MK, Beaven MA, Burgin AB, Manganiello V, Chung JH. Resveratrol ameliorates aging-related metabolic phenotypes by inhibiting cAMP phosphodiesterases. Cell. 2012 Feb 3;148(3):421-33.
PMID: 22304913.

Paxton JZ, Hagerty P, Andrick JJ, Baar K. Optimizing an intermittent stretch paradigm using ERK1/2 phosphorylation results in increased collagen synthesis in engineered ligaments. Tissue Eng Part A. 2012 Feb;18(3-4):277-84. Epub 2011 Dec 22.
PMID: 21902469.

Partida GJ, Stradleigh TW, Ogata G, Godzdanker I, Ishida AT (2012). Thy1 associates with the cation channel subunit HCN4 in adult rat retina. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (in press).

Philp A, Burke LM, Baar K. Altering endogenous carbohydrate availability to support training adaptations.Nestle Nutr Inst Workshop Ser. 2011;69:19-31; discussion 31-7. Epub 2012 Jan 18.
PMID: 22301834.

Ramenofsky, M. (2011) Reconsidering the role of photoperiod in relation to effects of precipitation and food availability on spring departure of a migratory bird. Proc R Soc B 279: 15-16. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1591.

Khodabukus A, Baar K. Defined Electrical Stimulation Emphasizing Excitability for the Development and Testing of Engineered Skeletal Muscle. Tissue Eng Part C Methods. 2011 Dec 28. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 22092374.

D. Odde, A. Mogilner, Modeling Cellular Processes in 3D. Trends Cell Biol. 21: 692-700 (2011).

Noa Ofer, Alex Mogilner, Kinneret Keren. Actin Disassembly Clock Determines Shape and Speed of Lamellipodial Fragments. PNAS, 108: 20394-20399 (2011).

Ambarish Kunwar, Suvranta K. Tripathy, Jing Xu, Michelle Mattson, Roby Sigua, Richard McKinney, Clare Yu,3, Alex Mogilner, and Steven P. Gross, Mechanical stochastic tug-of-war models cannot explain bidirectional lipid-droplet transport. PNAS, 108: 18960-18965 (2011).

Schenk S, McCurdy CE, Philp A, Chen MZ, Holliday MJ, Bandyopadhyay GK, Osborn O, Baar K, Olefsky JM. Sirt1 enhances skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity in mice during caloric restriction. J Clin Invest. 2011 Nov;121(11):4281-8. doi: 10.1172/JCI58554. Epub 2011 Oct 10.
PMID: 21985785.

Hedrick, A.V. & R. Kortet. 2012. Sex differences in the repeatability of boldness over metamorphosis. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 66: 407- 412.

Moore BD 4th, Kiley CW, Sun C, Usrey WM. (2011). Rapid plasticity of visual responses in the adult lateral geniculate nucleus. Neuron. 71:812-819.

11-09-02
Philp A, Chen A, Lan D, Meyer GA, Murphy AN, Knapp AE, Olfert IM, McCurdy CE, Marcotte GR, Hogan MC, Baar K, Schenk S. Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) deacetylase activity is not required for mitochondrial biogenesis or peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator-1alpha (PGC-1alpha) deacetylation following endurance exercise. J Biol Chem. 2011 Sep 2;286(35):30561-70. Epub 2011 Jul 11.
PMID: 21757760.

Woods GF, Oh WC, Boudewyn LC, Mikula SK, Zito K. Loss of PSD-95 enrichment is not a prerequisite for spine retraction. J Neurosci. 2011 Aug 24;31(34):12129-38.

Nevitt, G. A. The neuroecology of dimethyl sulfide: a global-climate regulator turned marine infochemical. Integr Comp Biol. 2011 Nov;51(5):819-25. Epub 2011 Aug 31.

Wingfield, J.C. & Ramenofsky, M. 2011. Hormone-behavioral interrelationships of birds in response to weather. In H. J. Brockmann, T. J. Roper, M. Naguib, J. C. Mitani, Leigh W. Simmons, (eds), Advances in the study of behavior 43: 93-188. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-380896-7.00003-4.

Coverdill, A.J., Clark, A.D, Wingfield, J.C. & Ramenofsky, M. (2011) Examination of nocturnal activity and behaviour in resident white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys nuttalli). Behaviour 148:859-876. DOI:10.1163/000579511X579038.

Ramenofsky, M (2011) The inconvenient truths about global change and bird migration, a book review of Bird migration and global change by G. W. Cox, Island Press, 2010. Bioscience 61(9):727-728.

W. Jeffrey Weidner (2011) Effects of hypoxia and hypercapnia on neopulmonic and paleopulmonic pulmonary blood flow in Gallus domesticus. Trends in Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 15: 45-49.

Philp A, Belew MY, Evans A, Pham D, Sivia I, Chen A, Schenk S, Baar K. The PGC-1α-related coactivator promotes mitochondrial and myogenic adaptations in C2C12 myotubes. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2011 Oct;301(4):R864-72. Epub 2011 Jul 27.
PMID: 21795630.

Cerda, O., and J. S. Trimmer. (2011). Activity-Dependent Phosphorylation of Neuronal Kv2.1 Potassium Channels by CDK5. J. Biol. Chem. 286:28738-28748

Busch, D.S., Robinson, W.D., Robinson, T.R., and Wingfield, J.C. (2011). Influence of proximity to a geographical range limit on the physiology of a tropical bird. Journal of Animal Ecology doi:10.1111/j.1365-2656.2010.01791.x.

Trimmer JS. How native cells regulate their ion channels.Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2011 Apr;22(2):131.

Baek JH, Cerda O, Trimmer JS. Mass spectrometry-based phosphoproteomics reveals multisite phosphorylation on mammalian brain voltage-gated sodium and potassium channels. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2011 Apr;22(2):153-9.

Ramenofsky, M. (2011). Hormones in migration and reproductive cycles of birds. In Hormones and Reproduction in Vertebrates, D. Norris and K. H. Lopez. (Eds.), Academic Press. Pp 205-236.

Chen, S.-Y., Huang, P.-H. and Cheng, H.-J.. Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia 1-mediated axon guidance involves TRIO-RAC-PAK small GTPase pathway signaling. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (Epub ahead of print) (2011).

Pérez-Schindler J, Philp A, Baar K, Hernández-Cascales J. Regulation of contractility and metabolic signaling by the β(2)-adrenergic receptor in rat ventricular muscle. Life Sci. 2011 Apr 3. [Epub ahead of print].

P. Sommi, D.K. Cheerambathur, I. Brust-Mascher, A. Mogilner. Actomyosin-dependent cortical dynamics contributes to the prophase force-balance in the early Drosophila embryo, PLoS One, 6: e18366 (2011).

Stradleigh TW, Ogata G, Partida GJ, Oi H, Greenberg KP, Krempely KS, Ishida AT (2011). Colocalization of HCN channel subunits in rat retinal ganglion cells. J Comp Neurol. Mar 31. doi: 10.1002/cne.22638. [Epub ahead of print]

Sperka DJ, Ditterich J. Splash: a software tool for stereotactic planning of recording chamber placement and electrode trajectories. Front Neuroinformatics. 2011 Mar 22;5:1.

Cerda, O., and J. S. Trimmer. (2011). Activity-Dependent Phosphorylation of Neuronal Kv2.1 Potassium Channels by CDK5. J. Biol. Chem. 286:28738-28748

Busch, D.S., Robinson, W.D., Robinson, T.R., and Wingfield, J.C. (2011). Influence of proximity to a geographical range limit on the physiology of a tropical bird. Journal of Animal Ecology doi:10.1111/j.1365-2656.2010.01791.x.

Trimmer JS. How native cells regulate their ion channels.Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2011 Apr;22(2):131.

Baek JH, Cerda O, Trimmer JS. Mass spectrometry-based phosphoproteomics reveals multisite phosphorylation on mammalian brain voltage-gated sodium and potassium channels. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2011 Apr;22(2):153-9.

Ramenofsky, M. (2011). Hormones in migration and reproductive cycles of birds. In Hormones and Reproduction in Vertebrates, D. Norris and K. H. Lopez. (Eds.), Academic Press. Pp 205-236.

Chen, S.-Y., Huang, P.-H. and Cheng, H.-J.. Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia 1-mediated axon guidance involves TRIO-RAC-PAK small GTPase pathway signaling. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (Epub ahead of print) (2011).

Pérez-Schindler J, Philp A, Baar K, Hernández-Cascales J. Regulation of contractility and metabolic signaling by the β(2)-adrenergic receptor in rat ventricular muscle. Life Sci. 2011 Apr 3. [Epub ahead of print].

P. Sommi, D.K. Cheerambathur, I. Brust-Mascher, A. Mogilner. Actomyosin-dependent cortical dynamics contributes to the prophase force-balance in the early Drosophila embryo, PLoS One, 6: e18366 (2011).

S P O T L I G H T

Science
Special Section
Cell Image

Cell Polarity: Quantitative Modeling as a Tool in Cell Biology
Alex Mogilner, Jun Allard, and Roy Wollman

PDF version

Podcast interview

Teaching Assistant Positions Available for 2012 - 2013.

Click here to apply online. (Please note: The NPB Department is using the TA application form from MCB. After logging in, please continue with the
process even though it says "MCB Application".)

On The Cover

Clustered localization pattern of the Kv2.1 potassium channel in cultured rat hippocampal neurons. The image shows the clustered localization of the Kv2.1 channel (green), the synaptic marker PSD95 (red), the axon initial segment marker ankyrin-G (magenta), and the dendritic marker MAP2 (blue). In this issue, Cerda and Trimmer, pages 28738–28748, show that CDK5 modulates the phosphorylation and localization of the Kv2.1 potassium channel.

TEDx Talk
Keith Baar talks about Keys to a Happy, Healthy, and Longer Life

On The Cover

Molecular Biology of the Cell Cover Page

Image: Jie Zhu and Alex Mogilner, University of California, Davis; Anton Burakov, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia; and Vladimir Rodionov, University of Connecticut Health Center.

Sports Medicine Bulletin
Active Voice: Amenorrhea Not Only Negatively Impacts Bones - It Can Also Decrease Exercise Performance - Grechen A. Casazza