Endoplasmic reticulum visits highly active spines and prevents runaway potentiation of synapses.

ABSTRACT: In hippocampal pyramidal cells, a small subset of dendritic spines contain endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In large spines, ER frequently forms a spine apparatus, while smaller spines contain just a single tubule of smooth ER. Here we show that the ER visits dendritic spines in a non-random manner, targeting spines during periods of high synaptic activity. When we blocked ER motility using a dominant negative approach against myosin V, spine synapses became stronger compared to controls. We were not able to further potentiate these maxed-out synapses, but long-term depression (LTD) was readily induced by low-frequency stimulation. We conclude that the brief ER visits to active spines have the important function of preventing runaway potentiation of individual spine synapses, keeping most of th

SUBMITTER: Perez-Alvarez A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7546627 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature