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Journal home Advance online publication Current issue Archive Press releases Supplements Focuses Guide to authors Online submission Permissions For referees Free online issue Contact the journal Subscribe Advertising work@npg naturereprints About this site For librarians   NPG Resources Nature Nature Reviews Neuroscience Nature Cell Biology Nature Medicine Neuroscience Gateway UCSD-Nature Signaling Gateway NPG Subject areas Biotechnology Cancer Chemistry Clinical Medicine Dentistry Development Drug Discovery Earth Sciences Evolution & Ecology Genetics Immunology Materials Science Medical Research Microbiology Molecular Cell Biology Neuroscience Pharmacology Physics Browse all publications Article Nature Neuroscience  6, 507 - 518 (2003) Published online: 21 April 2003; | doi:10.1038/nn1048 Becoming a new neuron in the adult olfactory bulb Alan Carleton1, Leopoldo T. Petreanu2, Rusty Lansford3, Arturo Alvarez-Buylla4 & Pierre-Marie Lledo1 1  Pasteur Institute, Laboratory of Perception and Memory, CNRS UMR 2182, 25 Rue du Dr Roux, 75015 Paris, France 2  The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, New York 10021, USA 3  Division of Biology, Biological Imaging Center, Beckman Institute, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA 4  Neurosurgery Research, UCSF, San Francisco, California 94134, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Pierre-Marie Lledo pmlledo@pasteur.frNew neurons are continually recruited throughout adulthood in certain regions of the adult mammalian brain. How these cells mature and integrate into preexisting functional circuits remains unknown. Here we describe the physiological properties of newborn olfactory bulb interneurons at five different stages of their maturation in adult mice. Patch-clamp recordings were obtained from tangentially and radially migrating young neurons and from neurons in three subsequent maturation stages. Tangentially migrating neurons expressed extrasynaptic GABAA receptors and then AMPA receptors, before NMDA receptors appeared in radially migrating neurons. Spontaneous synaptic activity emerged soon after migration was complete, and spiking activity was the last characteristic to be acquired. This delayed excitability is unique to cells born in the adult and may protect circuits from uncontrolled neurotransmitter release and neural network disruption. Our results show that newly born cells recruited into the olfactory bulb become neurons, and a unique sequence of events leads to their functional integration. MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated REFERENCE Action Potentials: Generation and Propagation Nature Encyclopaedia of Life Sciences REVIEWS Excitatory actions of gaba during development: the nature of the nurture Nature Reviews Neuroscience Review (01 Sep 2002)  See all 2 matches for Reviews NEWS AND VIEWS Interneurons and the ghost of the sea Nature Neuroscience News and Views (01 Oct 1998) RESEARCH A mouse model of episodic ataxia type-1 Nature Neuroscience Article (01 Apr 2003) Self-inhibition of olfactory bulb neurons Nature Neuroscience Article (01 Aug 2002)  See all 10 matches for Research  Top Abstract Previous | Next Table of contents Full text Download PDF Send to a friend Save this link Open Innovation Challenges Optimizing Sub-cellular Localization Tags Deadline: Jan 31 2010 Reward: $20,000 USD The Seeker is looking for methods to optimize sub-cellular localization tags for protein expression.... Methods of Modeling Adaptation in Populations Deadline: Dec 30 2009 Reward: $15,000 USD The analysis of adaptation with a population is a frequently encountered computational modeling scen... More Challenges Powered by: nature jobs Data Manager Philip Morris International (PMI) Neuchatel Switzerland One Postdoctoral Position at Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics The Centre for Research Agricultural Genomics Consorcio CSIC-IRTA-UAB Barcelona Spain More science jobs Post a job for free Figures & Tables Supplementary info See also: News and Views by Aamodt Export citation Search buyers guide:   ADVERTISEMENT

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