Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 102, Issue 31, Pages 11088-11093Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0504806102
Keywords
acetylcholine; activity; neuromuscular junction; synaptogenesis
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Funding
- NIGMS NIH HHS [T32 GM 07200-28, T32 GM007200] Funding Source: Medline
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Synaptic organizing molecules and neurotransmission regulate synapse development. Here, we use the skeletal neuromuscular junction to assess the interdependence of effects evoked by an essential synaptic organizing protein, agrin, and the neuromuscular transmitter, acetylcholine (ACh). Mice lacking agrin fail to maintain neuromuscular junctions, whereas neuromuscular synapses differentiate extensively in the absence of ACh. We now demonstrate that agrin's action in vivo depends critically on cholinergic neurotransmission. Using double-mutant mice, we show that synapses do form in the absence of agrin provided that ACh is also absent. We provide evidence that ACh destabilizes nascent postsynaptic sites, and that one major physiological role of agrin is to counteract this antisynaptogenic influence. Similar interactions between neurotransmitters and synaptic organizing molecules may operate at synapses in the central nervous system.
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