Ca2+ channel-regulated neuronal gene expression

✍ Scribed by Finkbeiner, Steven ;Greenberg, Michael E.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 319 KB
• Volume: 37
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-3034
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4695(199810)37:1<171::aid-neu13>3.0.co;2-h

✦ Synopsis

Neuronal activity is required for plasma membrane Ca 2/ channels. In this review, we the survival of specific populations of neurons, for delineate some of the reported mechanisms by which the proper synaptic organization of the visual and Ca 2/ regulates gene expression: from its ability to somatosensory cortex, and for learning and memory. activate specific intracellular signal transduction The biochemical mechanisms that couple brief neupathways to its ability to regulate the initiation, elonronal activity to rapid and lasting adaptive changes gation, and translation of RNA transcripts. We will within the nervous system are poorly understood. discuss some known mechanisms by which different Over a decade ago, it was first shown that mimicking patterns of Ca 2/ influx, or Ca 2/ influx through differneuronal activity by membrane depolarization rapidly ent types of channel, could generate distinct patterns induced the expression of a class of genes known as of gene expression and how our understanding of immediate early genes. Subsequently, it has been Ca 2/ -regulated gene expression relates to larger quesshown that neuronal activity triggers a temporal setions of activity-dependent nervous system function. quence of gene expression that has been suggested to