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First published online April 28, 2005

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Sniffing out Glu receptor trafficking

Glutamate receptors are essential for synaptic transmission in the central nervous system. Regulating the trafficking of these receptors is one mechanism cells can use to control synaptic strength. Howard Chia-Hao Chang and Christopher Rongo have therefore analysed what directs assembly and transport of the nematode GLR1 and GLR2 proteins – glutamate receptor subunits closely related to the mammalian AMPA-type receptors (see p. 1945). The authors have introduced transgenes encoding mutated forms of GLR1 and GLR2 tagged with fluorescent proteins into wild-type and glr-mutant nematodes and monitored their transport by quantitative fluorescence microscopy. They find that GLR-1 and GLR-2 form a complex and that C-terminal tail sequences target these proteins to synapses. Significantly, wild-type GLRs can rescue targeting of mutant GLRs, presumably because intersubunit interactions allow them to escort their companions to synapses. The authors go on to show that the GLR-2 tail can direct a heterologous reporter protein to the synapse. Moreover, they demonstrate that this requires a PDZ-binding motif and other tail sequences, which interact with the synaptic protein LIN-10. Since many of these are evolutionarily conserved, the findings have important implications for receptor trafficking in vertebrates.

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Related articles in JCS:

Cytosolic tail sequences and subunit interactions are critical for synaptic localization of glutamate receptors

Howard Chia-Hao Chang and Christopher Rongo
JCS 2005 118: 1945-1956. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in JCS Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?