Department of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2011 Jun 10;106(23):238104. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.238104. Epub 2011 Jun 8.
Neurotransmitter receptor molecules, concentrated in postsynaptic domains along with scaffold and a number of other molecules, are key regulators of signal transmission across synapses. Combining experiment and theory, we develop a quantitative description of synaptic receptor domains in terms of a reaction-diffusion model. We show that interactions between only receptors and scaffolds, together with the rapid diffusion of receptors on the cell membrane, are sufficient for the formation and stable characteristic size of synaptic receptor domains. Our work reconciles long-term stability of synaptic receptor domains with rapid turnover and diffusion of individual receptors, and suggests novel mechanisms for a form of short-term, postsynaptic plasticity.
神经递质受体分子集中在突触后区域，与支架和许多其他分子一起，是信号在突触间传递的关键调节剂。我们通过实验和理论相结合，提出了一个基于反应-扩散模型的突触受体域的定量描述。我们表明，仅受体与支架之间的相互作用，以及细胞膜上受体的快速扩散，足以形成和稳定突触受体域的特征大小。我们的工作将突触受体域的长期稳定性与单个受体的快速周转和扩散协调起来，并为一种形式的短期突触后可塑性提供了新的机制。
