Functional identification of neural genes

Genetic dissection is the use of a series of mutations that affect a biological process in order to identify the functional elements of the process; 1 this permits elucidation of their function and interactions. 2 Genetic dissection has been used routinely to study biochemical pathways. A series of single gene mutations, affecting enzymes within a particular pathway, can each perturb the product of the pathway, e.g., by reducing the function of the essential enzymes. Each affected enzyme can then be identified biochemically by taking advantage of knowledge of the substrates and products in the pathway.