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Fast and reversible trapping of surface glycine receptors by gephyrin

Nature Neuroscience volume 4, pages 253–260 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Variations in receptor number at a given synapse are known to contribute to synaptic plasticity, but methods used to establish this idea usually do not allow for the determination of the dynamics of these phenomena. We used single-particle tracking to follow in real time, on the cell surface, movements of the glycine receptor (GlyR) with or without the GlyR stabilizing protein gephyrin. GlyR alternated within seconds between diffusive and confined states. In the absence of gephyrin, GlyR were mostly freely diffusing. Gephyrin induced long confinement periods spatially associated with submembranous clusters of gephyrin. However, even when most receptors were stabilized, they still frequently made transitions through the diffusive state. These data show that receptor number in a cluster results from a dynamic equilibrium between the pools of stabilized and freely mobile receptors. Modification of this equilibrium could be involved in regulation of the number of receptors at synapses.

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Figure 1: Increased clustering of glycine receptor by gephyrin binding.
Figure 2: Increased confinement of glycine receptor movements by gephyrin.
Figure 4: Analysis of confined and diffusive events.
Figure 3: Confinement domains are apposed to gephyrin clusters.
Figure 5: Effect of gephyrin-GFP on the kinetics of confinement and surface exploration by GlyRα1-βgb.

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Acknowledgements

We thank P. Ascher, A. Prochiantz and R. Miles for critical reading of the manuscript. Supported by grants from the CNRS, the INSERM, the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale, the Association Française contre les Myopathies and the council of the Région Aquitaine. J.M. was supported by fellowships from Fonds der Chemischen Industrie (FCI; No. 0653082) and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD; No. D/98/03816) and Centre international des étudiants et stagiaires (CIES; No.242708G).

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  1. J. Meier

    Present address: Developmental Physiology, Johannes Müller Institute for Physiology, Charité, Tucholskystr., D-10117, Berlin, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biologie Cellulaire de la Synapse N&P INSERM U497, Ecole Normale Supérieure 46, rue d'Ulm, 75005, Paris, France

    J. Meier, C. Vannier & A. Triller

  2. Physiologie Cellulaire de la Synapse, CNRS UMR 5091 Institut François Magendie, rue Camille Saint Saëns, Bordeaux, 33077, Cedex, France

    A. Sergé & D. Choquet

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Correspondence to D. Choquet.

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Meier, J., Vannier, C., Sergé, A. et al. Fast and reversible trapping of surface glycine receptors by gephyrin. Nat Neurosci 4, 253–260 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/85099

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