Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Oct;27(2):229-43.
doi: 10.1007/s10827-009-0139-5. Epub 2009 Feb 20.

Spine neck geometry determines spino-dendritic cross-talk in the presence of mobile endogenous calcium binding proteins

Hartmut Schmidt  1 , Jens Eilers
Affiliations

Spine neck geometry determines spino-dendritic cross-talk in the presence of mobile endogenous calcium binding proteins

Hartmut Schmidt et al. J Comput Neurosci. 2009 Oct.

Abstract

Dendritic spines are thought to compartmentalize second messengers like Ca2+. The notion of isolated spine signaling, however, was challenged by the recent finding that under certain conditions mobile endogenous Ca(2+)-binding proteins may break the spine limit and lead to activation of Ca(2+)-dependent dendritic signaling cascades. Since the size of spines is variable, the spine neck may be an important regulator of this spino-dendritic crosstalk. We tested this hypothesis by using an experimentally defined, kinetic computer model in which spines of Purkinje neurons were coupled to their parent dendrite by necks of variable geometry. We show that Ca2+ signaling and calmodulin activation in spines with long necks is essentially isolated from the dendrite, while stubby spines show a strong coupling with their dendrite, mediated particularly by calbindin D28k. We conclude that the spine neck geometry, in close interplay with mobile Ca(2+)-binding proteins, regulates the spino-dendritic crosstalk.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Bioessays. 2002 Dec;24(12):1130-44 - PubMed
    1. Trends Neurosci. 2004 Feb;27(2):77-83 - PubMed
    1. J Neurosci. 2000 Mar 1;20(5):1722-34 - PubMed
    1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Nov 21;103(47):17961-6 - PubMed
    1. Nature. 1997 Jan 9;385(6612):161-5 - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

-