title: The planar cell polarity protein Vangl2 is involved in postsynaptic compartmentalization.
abstract: The excitatory postsynaptic region of the vertebrate hippocampus is usually compartmentalized into the postsynaptic density (PSD) and N-cadherin-rich domain, which is important for synaptic adhesion. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the compartment formation are unknown. In the present report, we show that the planar cell polarity (PCP) protein Van Gogh-like 2 (Vangl2) plays a role in this regionalization. In cultured rat hippocampal neurons that were subjected to Vangl2 expression silencing, the formed clusters of PSD-95, one of the major scaffolding proteins in PSD, tended to overlap with those of N-cadherin. Further, in the dendrites of these neurons, the immunofluorescence of PSD-95 was to some extent diffused, without a significant change in the total signal. Because Vangl2 physically interacts with both PSD-95 and N-cadherin in vivo, these results suggest that a PCP-related direct molecular mechanism underlies the horizontal polarization of the postsynaptic regions.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cerebral Structure, Department of Cerebral Research, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Higashiyama 5-1, Myodaiji, Okazaki, 444-8787 Aichi, Japan.
authors.forename: Tadahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagaoka
authors.affiliation: Division of Cerebral Structure, Department of Cerebral Research, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Higashiyama 5-1, Myodaiji, Okazaki, 444-8787 Aichi, Japan. Electronic address: masashi.kishi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Masashi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kishi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015820:Cadherins / Q000378:metabolism; D002451:Cell Compartmentation; D016764:Cell Polarity; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D057907:Post-Synaptic Density / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D015820:Cadherins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; C000602563:Vangl2 protein, rat
keywords: Adherens junction; Endocytic zone; Endocytosis; PDZ Domain; Strabismus; Van Gogh