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bioRxiv · 10.1101/240176

Cell-autonomous regulation of structural and functional plasticity in inhibitory neurons by excitatory synaptic inputs

He, H.·Shen, W.·Zheng, L.·Guo, X.·Cline, H. T.
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Abstract

Functional circuit assembly is thought to require coordinated development of excitation and inhibition, but whether they are co-regulated cell-autonomously remains unclear. We investigated effects of decreased glutamatergic synaptic input on inhibitory synapses by expressing AMPAR subunit, GluA1 and GluA2, C-terminal peptides (GluA1CTP and GluA2CTP) in developing Xenopus tectal neurons. GluACTP decreased excitatory synaptic inputs and cell-autonomously decreased inhibitory synaptic inputs in excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Visually-evoked excitatory and inhibitory currents decreased proportionately, maintaining excitation/inhibition. GluACTP affected dendrite structure and visual experience-dependent structural plasticity differently in excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Deficits in excitatory and inhibitory synaptic transmission and experience-dependent plasticity manifested in altered visual receptive field properties. Both visual avoidance behavior and learning-induced behavioral plasticity were impaired, suggesting that maintaining excitation/inhibition alone is insufficient to preserve circuit function. We demonstrate that excitatory synaptic dysfunction in individual neurons cell-autonomously decreases inhibitory inputs and disrupts neuronal and circuit plasticity, information processing and learning.

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He, H., Shen, W., Zheng, L., Guo, X., Cline, H. T.. 2017-12-27. Cell-autonomous regulation of structural and functional plasticity in inhibitory neurons by excitatory synaptic inputs. https://doi.org/10.1101/240176

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