Inhibition promotes long-term potentiation at cerebellar excitatory synapses.

The ability of the cerebellar cortex to learn from experience ensures the accuracy of movements and reflex adaptation, processes which require long-term plasticity at granule cell (GC) to Purkinje neuron (PN) excitatory synapses. PNs also receive GABAergic inhibitory inputs via GCs activation of interneurons; despite the involvement of inhibition in motor learning, its role in long-term plasticity is poorly characterized. Here we reveal a functional coupling between ionotropic GABAA receptors and low threshold CaV3 calcium channels in PNs that sustains calcium influx and promotes long-term potentiation (LTP) at GC to PN synapses. High frequency stimulation induces LTP at GC to PN synapses and CaV3-mediated calcium influx provided that inhibition is intact; LTP is mGluR1, intracellular calcium store and CaV3 dependent. LTP is impaired in CaV3.1 knockout mice but it is nevertheless recovered by strengthening inhibitory transmission onto PNs; promoting a stronger hyperpolarization via GABAA receptor activation leads to an enhanced availability of an alternative Purkinje-expressed CaV3 isoform compensating for the lack of CaV3.1 and restoring LTP. Accordingly, a stronger hyperpolarization also restores CaV3-mediated calcium influx in PNs from CaV3.1 knockout mice. We conclude that by favoring CaV3 channels availability inhibition promotes LTP at cerebellar excitatory synapses.

The adhesion-GPCR BAI3, a gene linked to psychiatric disorders, regulates dendrite morphogenesis in neurons.

Adhesion-G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are a poorly studied subgroup of the GPCRs, which have diverse biological roles and are major targets for therapeutic intervention. Among them, the Brain Angiogenesis Inhibitor (BAI) family has been linked to several psychiatric disorders, but despite their very high neuronal expression, the function of these receptors in the central nervous system has barely been analyzed. Our results, obtained using expression knockdown and overexpression experiments, reveal that the BAI3 receptor controls dendritic arborization growth and branching in cultured neurons. This role is confirmed in Purkinje cells in vivo using specific expression of a deficient BAI3 protein in transgenic mice, as well as lentivirus driven knockdown of BAI3 expression. Regulation of dendrite morphogenesis by BAI3 involves activation of the RhoGTPase Rac1 and the binding to a functional ELMO1, a critical Rac1 regulator. Thus, activation of the BAI3 signaling pathway could lead to direct reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton through RhoGTPase signaling in neurons. Given the direct link between RhoGTPase/actin signaling pathways, neuronal morphogenesis and psychiatric disorders, our mechanistic data show the importance of further studying the role of the BAI adhesion-GPCRs to understand the pathophysiology of such brain diseases.

Combining loose cell-attached stimulation and recording.

Many synaptic-physiology experiments require selective stimulation of presynaptic neurones. No single method for achieving this is entirely satisfactory. Presynaptic whole-cell or microelectrode recordings offer outstanding control, but establishing such recordings of synaptically-connected neurones can be very time consuming. Minimal stimulation provides too little information regarding the condition and excitation of the presynaptic neurone(s). In the loose cell-attached configuration, it is possible both to stimulate individual cells and to record their action potentials, but most commercially-available equipment will not enable combining stimulation and recording. We demonstrate simultaneous loose cell-attached stimulation and recording of action potentials using a specially-designed patch-clamp amplifier. Since no tight seal is required, the method permits electrode re-use, thus enabling rapid screening of presynaptic cells while stimulating them selectively.