Glycine site of NMDA receptor serves as a spatiotemporal detector of synaptic activity patterns.
Calcium influx associated with the opening of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor channels is the major signal triggering synaptic and developmental plasticity. Controlling the NMDA receptor function is therefore critical for many functions of the brain. We explored the mechanisms of synaptic activation of the NMDAR glycine site by endogenous coagonist using whole cell voltage-clamp recordings from hippocampal neurons in mixed cultures, containing both neurons and glial cells, and, under more physiological conditions, in hippocampal slices. Here we show that the glycine site of the NMDA receptor at hippocampal synapses, both in culture and acute brain slices, is not saturated by the ambient coagonist concentration and is modulated through activity-dependent coagonist release. Augmentation of the NMDA receptor-mediated synaptic responses by local glutamate-induced coagonist release is spatially restricted and determined by spatiotemporal summation of synaptic events at neighboring synaptic inputs on a single dendritic branch. Therefore different spatiotemporal patterns of presynaptic activity could be translated into different levels of the NMDAR activation in specific afferent projections. These results suggest that the NMDA receptor glycine site may serve as a detector of the spatiotemporal characteristics of presynaptic activity patterns.
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Yan
Y
Li
Boris
B
Krupa
Jian-Sheng
JS
Kang
Vadim Y
VY
Bolshakov
Guosong
G
Liu
D018750:6-Cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001703:Biophysics; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004347:Drug Interactions; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D005998:Glycine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008012:Lidocaine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000819:agonists / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism*; D026941:Sodium Channel Blockers / Q000494:pharmacology; D013569:Synapses / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014404:Tubulin / Q000378:metabolism; D014633:Valine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology
D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; D026941:Sodium Channel Blockers; C488416:Tubb3 protein, rat; D014404:Tubulin; C012647:QX-314; D018698:Glutamic Acid; D018750:6-Cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione; C056639:2-amino-5-phosphopentanoic acid; D008012:Lidocaine; D014633:Valine; D005998:Glycine