Calcium-dependent phosphorylation regulates neuronal stability and plasticity in a highly precise pacemaker nucleus.

ABSTRACT: Specific types of neurons show stable, predictable excitability properties, while other neurons show transient adaptive plasticity of their excitability. However, little attention has been paid to how the cellular pathways underlying adaptive plasticity interact with those that maintain neuronal stability. We addressed this question in the pacemaker neurons from a weakly electric fish because these neurons show a highly stable spontaneous firing rate as well as an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-dependent form of plasticity. We found that basal firing rates were regulated by a serial interaction of conventional and atypical PKC isoforms and that this interaction establishes individual differences within the species. We observed that NMDA receptor-dependent plasticity is achieved by fu

SUBMITTER: George AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3129731 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature