GluA4 sustains sensing of sounds through stable, speedy, sumptuous, spineless synapses.

摘要

Glutamatergic synapses are of immense importance in that they mediate most excitation in the vertebrate brain. They are remarkably diverse. Some produce large, precisely timed synaptic currents, while others produce small, slow currents. Some are indefatigable, signalling robustly and with high fidelity, independent of how rapidly they are driven while others are plastic, constantly strengthening or weakening as a function of whether they are driven rapidly or slowly. a-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole proprionate (AMPA) receptors report the presynaptic release of neurotransmitter to postsynaptic neurons. They are tetrameric ion channels formed as combinations of four alpha subunits, GluAl-4, each of which has the alternatively spliced forms, flip and flop.