[TNJC] Neuro Journal Club this week (13/5, 2pm, Tuesday)

[Ben Dongsung Huh]

Dear all, 

For this week's TNJC, Gergo Bohner will present the following paper:

Connexin 30 sets synaptic strength by controlling astroglial synapse invasion

http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v17/n4/pdf/nn.3662.pdf

Ulrike Pannasch, Dominik Freche, Glenn Dallérac, Grégory Ghézali, Carole Escartin, Pascal Ezan, Martine Cohen-Salmon, Karim Benchenane, Veronica Abudara, Amandine Dufour, Joachim H R Lübke, Nicole Déglon, Graham Knott, David Holcman & Nathalie Rouach

Nature Neuroscience

 

17,

 

549–558

 

(2014)

Abstract: Astrocytes play active roles in brain physiology by dynamic interactions with neurons. Connexin 30, one of the two main astroglial gap-junction subunits, is thought to be involved in behavioral and basic cognitive processes. However, the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms are unknown. We show here in mice that connexin 30 controls hippocampal excitatory synaptic transmission through modulation of astroglial glutamate transport, which directly alters synaptic glutamate levels. Unexpectedly, we found that connexin 30 regulated cell adhesion and migration and that connexin 30 modulation of glutamate transport, occurring independently of its channel function, was mediated by morphological changes controlling insertion of astroglial processes into synaptic clefts. By setting excitatory synaptic strength, connexin 30 plays an important role in long-term synaptic plasticity and in hippocampus-based contextual memory. Taken together, these results establish connexin 30 as a critical regulator of synaptic strength by controlling the synaptic location of astroglial processes.

See you then!

TNJC website:   www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/tnjc/

Joana	20/5/2014

Ben Dongsung Huh
Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit