title: Picking up the pieces: the roles of functional remnants of calpain-mediated proteolysis.
abstract: Calpain-mediated cleavage of neuronal targets has long been associated with excitotoxicity and synaptic plasticity. In this issue of Neuron, two papers by Xu et al. and Abe and Takeichi explore the respective roles of mGluR1alpha cleavage in excitotoxicity and beta-catenin cleavage in transcriptional control. Together, these papers show the functional importance of fragments of calpain-mediated cleavage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. lynch@pharm.med.upenn.edu
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Lynch
authors.forename: Amy J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Gleichman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002154:Calpain / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology*; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D018094:Receptors, Metabotropic Glutamate / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D051176:beta Catenin / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D018094:Receptors, Metabotropic Glutamate; D051176:beta Catenin; C104077:metabotropic glutamate receptor type 1; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D002154:Calpain