A central goal of cellular and molecular neuroscience is to explain the development and function of the nervous system in terms of the function of genes and proteins. Models of gene regulation have evolved from being focused on transcriptional and translational control to include a variety of regulatory mechanisms such as epigenetic control, mRNA splicing, microRNAs, and local translation. Here we discuss how developments in molecular biology influenced the study of neuronal gene expression, and how this has shaped our understanding of neuronal development and function.