Persistence of coordinated long-term potentiation and dendritic spine enlargement at mature hippocampal CA1 synapses requires N-cadherin.
Persistent changes in spine shape are coupled to long-lasting synaptic plasticity in hippocampus. The molecules that coordinate such persistent structural and functional plasticity are unknown. Here, we generated mice in which the cell adhesion molecule N-cadherin was conditionally ablated from postnatal, excitatory synapses in hippocampus. We applied to adult mice of either sex a combination of whole-cell recording, two-photon microscopy, and spine morphometric analysis to show that postnatal ablation of N-cadherin has profound effects on the stability of coordinated spine enlargement and long-term potentiation (LTP) at mature CA1 synapses, with no effects on baseline spine density or morphology, baseline properties of synaptic neurotransmission, or long-term depression. Thus, N-cadherin couples persistent spine structural modifications with long-lasting synaptic functional modifications associated selectively with LTP, revealing unexpectedly distinct roles at mature synapses in comparison with earlier, broader functions in synapse and spine development.
Bozdagi
Ozlem
O
Fishberg Department of Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute and Department of Neurology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029, USA.
Wang
Xiao-bin
XB
Nikitczuk
Jessica S
JS
Anderson
Tonya R
TR
Bloss
Erik B
EB
Radice
Glenn L
GL
Zhou
Qiang
Q
Benson
Deanna L
DL
Huntley
George W
GW
D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001703:Biophysics / Q000379:methods; D056547:CA1 Region, Hippocampal / Q000166:cytology*; D015820:Cadherins / Q000172:deficiency / Q000378:metabolism*; D049229:Dendritic Spines / Q000502:physiology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / Q000235:genetics; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D016253:Microscopy, Immunoelectron / Q000379:methods; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques / Q000379:methods; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013569:Synapses / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure
D015820:Cadherins; C489083:Cdh2 protein, mouse