Activity-dependent homeostatic specification of transmitter expression in embryonic neurons

Laura N. Borodinsky (), Cory M. Root, Julia A. Cronin, Sharon B. Sann, Xiaonan Gu and Nicholas C. Spitzer
Additional contact information
Laura N. Borodinsky: UCSD
Cory M. Root: UCSD
Julia A. Cronin: UCSD
Sharon B. Sann: UCSD
Xiaonan Gu: UCSD
Nicholas C. Spitzer: UCSD

Nature, 2004, vol. 429, issue 6991, 523-530

Abstract: Abstract Neurotransmitters are essential for interneuronal signalling, and the specification of appropriate transmitters in differentiating neurons has been related to intrinsic neuronal identity and to extrinsic signalling proteins. Here we show that altering the distinct patterns of Ca2+ spike activity spontaneously generated by different classes of embryonic spinal neurons in vivo changes the transmitter that neurons express without affecting the expression of markers of cell identity. Regulation seems to be homeostatic: suppression of activity leads to an increased number of neurons expressing excitatory transmitters and a decreased number of neurons expressing inhibitory transmitters; the reverse occurs when activity is enhanced. The imposition of specific spike frequencies in vitro does not affect labels of cell identity but again specifies the expression of transmitters that are inappropriate for the markers they express, during an early critical period. The results identify a new role of patterned activity in development of the central nervous system.

Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02518 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:429:y:2004:i:6991:d:10.1038_nature02518

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature02518

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().