Pre- and postsynaptic nanostructures increase in size and complexity after induction of long-term potentiation

Valérie Clavet-Fournier; ChungKu Lee; Waja Wegner; Nils Brose; JeongSeop Rhee; Katrin I Willig

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.108679

Pre- and postsynaptic nanostructures increase in size and complexity after induction of long-term potentiation

iScience. 2023 Dec 7;27(1):108679. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108679. eCollection 2024 Jan 19.

Authors

Valérie Clavet-Fournier^{1

2}, ChungKu Lee³, Waja Wegner^{1

4}, Nils Brose⁵, JeongSeop Rhee³, Katrin I Willig^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Group of Optical Nanoscopy in Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen, Germany.
² Göttingen Graduate Center for Neurosciences, Biophysics, und Molecular Biosciences (GGNB), Göttingen, Germany.
³ Department of Molecular Neurobiology, Synaptic Physiology Group, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen, Germany.
⁴ Center for Nanoscale Microscopy and Molecular Physiology of the Brain, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
⁵ Department of Molecular Neurobiology, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen, Germany.

Abstract

Synapses, specialized contact sites between neurons, are the fundamental elements of neuronal information transfer. Synaptic plasticity involves changes in synaptic morphology and the number of neurotransmitter receptors, and is thought to underlie learning and memory. However, it is not clear how these structural and functional changes are connected. We utilized time-lapse super-resolution STED microscopy of organotypic hippocampal brain slices and cultured neurons to visualize structural changes of the synaptic nano-organization of the postsynaptic scaffolding protein PSD95, the presynaptic scaffolding protein Bassoon, and the GluA2 subunit of AMPA receptors by chemically induced long-term potentiation (cLTP) at the level of single synapses. We found that the nano-organization of all three proteins increased in complexity and size after cLTP induction. The increase was largely synchronous, peaking at ∼60 min after stimulation. Therefore, both the size and complexity of individual pre- and post-synaptic nanostructures serve as substrates for tuning and determining synaptic strength.

Keywords: Neuroscience; Sensory neuroscience.