DNA methylation regulates neuronal glutamatergic synaptic scaling.

ABSTRACT: Enhanced receptiveness at all synapses on a neuron that receive glutamatergic input is called cell-wide synaptic upscaling. We hypothesize that this type of synaptic plasticity may be critical for long-term memory storage within cortical circuits, a process that may also depend on epigenetic mechanisms, such as covalent chemical modification of DNA. We found that DNA cytosine demethylation mediates multiplicative synaptic upscaling of glutamatergic synaptic strength in cultured cortical neurons. Inhibiting neuronal activity with tetrodotoxin (TTX) decreased the cytosine methylation of and increased the expression of genes encoding glutamate receptors and trafficking proteins, in turn increasing the amplitude but not frequency of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs), indicati

SUBMITTER: Meadows JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4764068 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature