title: Molecular dynamics of the excitatory synapse.
abstract: Molecular dynamics of synapses are one of the most important factors that control the remodeling of synaptic connection and efficacy of transmission. This chapter focuses on the dynamics of postsynaptic molecular machinery and describes the imaging technologies important for quantitative analyses of synapses, their application to the postsynaptic molecules, and the insights obtained from these analyses. New visualization techniques, such as super-resolution microscopy, will become an indispensable approach to reveal submicron changes of synaptic molecules. New methods of monitoring protein interactions will also be integrated with experimental paradigms of synaptic plasticity. Cell biological analyses, together with cutting-edge imaging technologies, have been applied to the studies of nascent synapse formation, synapse maintenance, and activity-dependent synapse remodeling. From these studies, a variety of new concepts emerged, such as local assembly of postsynaptic scaffolds, presence of "transport packets" of postsynaptic receptors, heterogeneity of actin movement within spines, and activity-free fluctuation of PSD/spine sizes. These new concepts are useful in understanding specific properties of postsynaptic functions and should be integrated in future to build a realistic model of the postsynaptic organization that can explain its remarkable stability and tunability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular Neurobiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, 113-0033 Tokyo, Japan. okabe@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp
authors.forename: Shigeo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Okabe
mesh_terms: D008841:Actin Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism; D000199:Actins / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D049229:Dendritic Spines / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D036681:Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D045663:Quantum Dots; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000502:physiology; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate