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Brainbow: Principle, Technique, and Applications

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Advances in Brain Imaging Techniques

Abstract

In the field of neuroscience, studying the intricate architecture of neuronal and glial cells forming a network in the nervous system can be extremely useful to understand the networking of neurons within the brain and other parts of the nervous system. However, this is an extremely arduous task due to the complexity of the brain and nerve tissue. To this end, optical techniques combined with genetic labeling techniques can be used to obtain a visual representation of the neurons in the tissue. Brainbow is one such strategy that uses Cre-lox recombination to stochastically express two to four fluorescent proteins in cells of the same tissue. This expression is combinatorial and depends on the copy number of the loxP sites present in each cell, thereby resulting in a myriad of colors and hues, which are unique to each cell, making it easier to visually distinguish each neuron within the complex arrangement of the tissue. This multicolor labeling technique otherwise referred to as the “Brainbow” technique is briefly discussed in the following chapter, along with the principle, techniques, and various applications in the field of neuroscience.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Global Innovation and Technology Alliance (GITA), Department of Science and Technology (DST), India [Project Number-GITA/DST/TWN/P-95/2021], and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), (Project Number-ITR/Ad-hoc/43/2020-21, ID No. 2020-3286) Government of India, India for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biophysics, Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India

    Kausalya Neelavara Makkithaya & Nirmal Mazumder

  2. National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar, Jatni, Odisha, India

    Saina Rath

  3. Gitam University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India

    Sathya Sandilya Garemilla & Sai Sowmya

  4. University of Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    S. Keerthana

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  1. Kausalya Neelavara Makkithaya
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  2. Saina Rath
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  4. Sai Sowmya
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  5. S. Keerthana
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  6. Nirmal Mazumder
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biophysics, Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India

    Nirmal Mazumder

  2. Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India

    Gireesh Gangadharan

  3. Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia

    Yury V. Kistenev

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© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

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Makkithaya, K.N., Rath, S., Garemilla, S.S., Sowmya, S., Keerthana, S., Mazumder, N. (2022). Brainbow: Principle, Technique, and Applications. In: Mazumder, N., Gangadharan, G., Kistenev, Y.V. (eds) Advances in Brain Imaging Techniques. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1352-5_6

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