Scientist Discover Gene Essential for Sensing Joint Position

Close your eyes... now touch your nose. This is a simple task that can be easily impaired. Proprioception is the detection of body position, a concept that does not cross the minds of many people, until it becomes faulty. Scientist at The Scripps Research Institute have discovered a gene and a type of nerve which is important to detect leg-joint angles. The team leader describes the finding as "cells which resemble human nerve cells that innervate joints".  The catch? They have only been located in the fruit fly! However; should this gene be found in humans it could lead to a greater understanding, as well as treatments, for those who suffer with faulty proprioception. A questions scientists have been asking themselves is how a neuron can specialize in sensing just one type of "membrane-distorting stimulus" -like an angle of a limb joint, and exclude other stimuli, like impact pressures.
When conducting this study scientist zeroed in on flies which struggled to walk and found a similar gene mutation in all of the flies. Called "stumble", it is the absence of the gene (stumble) which leads to the defective walking. Scientists are now working on learning more about stumble and looking to see if the human version of stumble works in a similar manner. The research team from The Scripps Research Institute was even able to restore normal walking ability to the flies with mutated genes!
Published in Science Daily

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