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First published online April 1, 2009

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AMPAR activity shows some spine...

Dendritic spines, which are bulbous, mushroom-shaped protrusions that extend from dendrites, form the signal-receiving component of most glutamatergic synapses. During development, spines are formed through the morphological alteration of filopodia-like neuronal protrusions – but how is this process controlled? Previously, Tomoaki Shirao and colleagues showed that the clustering of the actin-binding drebrin, which occurs on dendritic filopodia at nascent synapses, is important for spine formation; now (p. 1211), they demonstrate that drebrin clustering is promoted by synaptic activity. The authors show that, when the activity of AMPA receptors (but not of other glutamate receptors) is blocked pharmacologically, postsynaptic drebrin clustering is prevented in the dendritic spines of developing hippocampal neurons in culture. Conversely, the activation of AMPA receptors promotes clustering. They next show, using FRAP, that AMPA-receptor activity promotes drebrin stabilisation, and that this is a prerequisite for drebrin clustering. Notably, AMPA-receptor blockade suppresses the normal morphological maturation of spines. On the basis of these data, the authors propose that the AMPA-receptor-dependent stabilisation of drebrin in spines is a novel activity-dependent mechanism for spine morphogenesis.

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Activity of the AMPA receptor regulates drebrin stabilization in dendritic spine morphogenesis

Hideto Takahashi, Hiroyuki Yamazaki, Kenji Hanamura, Yuko Sekino, and Tomoaki Shirao
JCS 2009 122: 1211-1219. [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?