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- Title
Neuronal Glutamatergic Network Electrically Wired with Silent But Activatable Gap Junctions.
- Authors
Ixmatlahua, Diana J.; Vizcarra, Bianca; Gomez-Lira, Gisela; Romero-Maldonado, Isabel; Ortiz, Franco; Rojas-Piloni, Gerardo; Gutierrez, Rafael
- Abstract
It is widely assumed that electrical synapses in the mammalian brain, especially between interneurons, underlie neurona! synchrony. In the hippocampus, principal cells also establish electrical synapses with each other and have also been implicated in network oscillations, whereby the origin of fast electrical activity has been attributed to ectopic spikelets and dendro-dendritic or axo-axonal gap junctions. However, if electrical synapses were in axo-dendritic connections, where chemical synapses occur, the synaptic events would be mixed, having an electrical component preceding the chemical one. This type of communication is less well studied, mainly because it is not easily detected. Moreover, a possible scenario could be that an electrical synapse coexisted with a chemical one, but in a nonconductive state; hence, it would be considered inexistent. Could chemical synapses have a quiescent electrical component? If so, can silent electrical synapses be activated to be detected? We addressed this possibility, and we here report that, indeed, the connexin-36-containing glutamatergic mossy fiber synapses of the rat hippocampus express previously unrecognized electrical synapses, which are normally silent. We reveal that these synapses are pH sensitive, actuate in vitro and in vivo, and that the electrical signaling is bidirectional. With the simultaneous recording of hundreds of cells, we could reveal the existence of an electrical circuit in the hippocampus of adult rats of either sex consisting of principal cells where the nodes are interregional glutamatergic synapses containing silent but ready-to-use gap junctions.
- Subjects
ELECTRIC circuits; SYNAPSES
- Publication
Journal of Neuroscience, 2020, Vol 40, Issue 24, p4661
- ISSN
0270-6474
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1523/jneurosci.2590-19.2020