I came across this fantastic review of tools for the Genetic Dissection of Neural Circuits in Neuron a few days ago. It’s by Liqun Luo, Ed Callaway, and Karel Svoboda. I highly recommend it, as it spans the gamut from genetic targeting (recombination, binary logic, viral delivery) to circuit reconstruction (super resolution LM, EM, brainbow) to activity modulation and functional mapping (uncaging, artificial GPCRs, light-gated channels, MIST). I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite a review of so many cutting edge neurotechnologies in one place. I can’t recommend this piece enough really. For me, with my lack of molecular expertise, the first sections on combinatorial gene targeting/expression techniques were great, pulling together Gal4, Cre/Flp, and Tet systems into a unified framework, along with more general concepts like site-directed integration, enhancer-trap, and repressor trap (eg. Thy1 mice).
