PBIO SEMINAR SERIES

Synapse assembly and plasticity in hippocampal neurons

Wednesday - April 25, 2007
06-07 Seminar Series
T-639

Ann Marie Craig
University of British Columbia
Speaker's website

Host: Andres Barria

We study how central neurons form synaptic connections and modify those connections with experience. Our perspective on synaptogenesis and synaptic plasticity is largely from the point of view of the cell biology of the postsynaptic neuron. It is my view that the molecular composition and thus functional status of each synapse is unique, a consequence of pre- and post-synaptic cell type, stage of development, environmental influences, and history of activity of that synapse. We mainly use cultured hippocampal neurons as a model system. This seminar will focus on two recent areas of research. The first is how different neurexin variants can induce clustering of postsynaptic components and may function differentially at GABAergic versus glutamatergic synapses. The second is a novel mode of activity-induced translocation of calcium-calmodulin dependent protein kinase II to glutamatergic postsynaptic sites.