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Synaptic physiology

Closing the gap

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 7, page 8 (2006)Cite this article

Signalling through electrical synapses that are formed by gap junctions between neurons is important in the development of the mammalian central nervous system. Neuronal gap junctions are abundant immediately after birth, but subsequently decrease in number and remain at a low level, being confined to specific subsets of neurons in adults. Writing in Nature Neuroscience, Harsha Arumugam and colleagues show that the maturation of glutamatergic transmission is responsible for gap junction uncoupling during development.

These researchers studied gap junction coupling in slices of the paraventricular nucleus and the supraoptic nucleus of the rat hypothalamus, as well as in dissociated hypothalamic cultures, by using the coupling tracer neurobiotin, which passes through gap junctions. They found that the incidence of dye coupling increased during the first 2 weeks of postnatal development or in culture, and then declined significantly. These changes in gap junction coupling correlated with changes in the expression of connexin 36 — a neuron-specific gap junction protein.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Arumugam, H. et al. NMDA receptors regulate developmental gap junction uncoupling via CREB signaling. Nature Neurosci. 8, 1720–1726 (2005)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Söhl, G. et al. Expression and functions of neuronal gap junctions. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 6, 191–200 (2005)

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Authors
  1. Jane Qiu
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Qiu, J. Closing the gap. Nat Rev Neurosci 7, 8 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1839

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1839

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