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Development

Nature vs nurture

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 3, page 171 (2002)Cite this article

Eph receptors and their ligands, the ephrins, participate in several developmental phenomena, such as segmentation and axon guidance. Previous observations had shown that EphB2 receptors interact with and cluster NMDA receptors at synaptic sites. Takasu et al. explored the functional meaning of such an interaction and found that EphB2 potentiates the influx of calcium through NMDA channels in cortical neurons, an effect that depended on phosphorylation of the NMDA receptor. Although Eph receptors are themselves kinases, this NMDA receptor phosphorylation involves a member of the Src family of kinases. As this increase in NMDA receptor function was also accompanied by an increase in gene expression, it is possible that this new signalling pathway participates in the long-term structural remodelling of the synapse. Indeed, two additional papers point in this direction by showing that the absence of EphB2 impairs long-term synaptic plasticity.

Henderson et al. found that mice lacking EphB2 showed a reduction in hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) in both the CA1 region and the dentate gyrus. Grunwald et al. found a similar reduction in CA1 LTP, particularly during its late phase, and marked impairments of both long-term depression (LTD) and a reversal of LTP known as depotentiation. Moreover, Grunwald et al. showed that spatial memory, which depends on hippocampal function, was defective in EphB2 knockout mice.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

  1. Takasu, M. A. et al. Modulation of NMDA receptor-dependent calcium influx and gene expression through EphB receptors. Science 295, 491–495 (2002)

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  2. Grunwald, I. C. et al. Kinase-independent requirement of EphB2 receptors in hippocampal synaptic plasticity. Neuron 32, 1027–1040 (2001)

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  3. Henderson, J. T. et al. The receptor tyrosine kinase EphB2 regulates NMDA-dependent synaptic function. Neuron 32, 1041–1056 (2001)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Wilkinson, D. G. Multiple roles of Eph receptors and ephrins in neural development. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 2, 155–164 (2001)

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  2. Gerlai, R. Eph receptors and neural plasticity. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 2, 205–209 (2001)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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Authors
  1. Juan Carlos López
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López, J. Nature vs nurture. Nat Rev Neurosci 3, 171 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn759

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn759

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