Complexity of synapse development (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, May 08, 2014, 16:07 (3852 days ago)

That synapses are complex has been noted here. The transmission of impulses can be variously modified at each synapse. This research shows the complexity of embryologic synapse development.-http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/39914/title/Minis-Ensure-Synaptic-Maturation/-"Researchers have often focused on initial synapse formation, McCabe said, and for that, miniature neurotransmission does not appear to be essential. "But for subsequent development of those synapses, then it is required," he said. "That's a new discovery."
 
"McCabe and his colleagues further investigated how minis influence synaptic development using Drosophila mutants in which some of the fly's postsynaptic glutamate receptors were inhibited. They found that minis regulate the growth of local synaptic terminals by activating a signaling pathway involved in presynaptic neuronal development.
 
These experiments "beautifully dissociate the role of minis and evoked transmission in developmental maturation of the Dropsophila NMJ," Sutton wrote in an e-mail to The Scientist. "The authors very elegantly demonstrate that it is not the amount of activity at synapses that controls maturation, but rather, it is the nature of the activity (evoked versus miniature events) that is important.""