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Critical role of TRPC6 channels in the formation of excitatory synapses

Nature Neuroscience volume 11, pages 741–743 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

The transient receptor potential canonical (TRPC) channels are Ca2+-permeable, nonselective cation channels with different biological functions, but their roles in brain are largely unknown. Here we report that TRPC6 was localized to excitatory synapses and promoted their formation via a CaMKIV-CREB–dependent pathway. TRPC6 transgenic mice showed enhancement in spine formation, and spatial learning and memory in Morris water maze. These results reveal a previously unknown role of TRPC6 in synaptic and behavioral plasticity.

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Figure 1: TRPC6 was localized to excitatory postsynapses.
Figure 2: TRPC6 promoted the formation of dendritic spines and excitatory synapses via a CaMKIV-CREB–dependent pathway.
Figure 3: TRPC6 transgenic mice showed enhancement in spine density, spatial learning and memory.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J.W. Putney, Jr., T. Gudermann, D.J. Linden, M.E. Greenberg and S.J. Elledge for providing constructs, W.P. Schilling for TRPC1 antibodies and Q. Hu for confocal imaging. This work was supported by grants from KSCX2-YW-R-099 (Chinese Academy of Science), the 973 program (2006CB806600) and projects 30621062, 30711120566, U0632006 from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

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Author notes

  1. Jian Zhou and Wanlu Du: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Neural Signal Transduction, Institute of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes of Biological Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Shanghai, 200031, China

    Jian Zhou, Wanlu Du, Kechun Zhou, Yilin Tai, Hailan Yao, Yichang Jia, Yuqiang Ding & Yizheng Wang

  2. The Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, 200031, China

    Jian Zhou, Wanlu Du, Kechun Zhou, Yilin Tai, Hailan Yao & Yichang Jia

Authors
  1. Jian Zhou
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  2. Wanlu Du
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  3. Kechun Zhou
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  4. Yilin Tai
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  5. Hailan Yao
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Contributions

J.Z. and W.D. conducted the experiments and wrote the manuscript. K.Z. carried out the recording, and Y.T., H.Y. and Y.J. prepared some of the constructs. Y.D. helped with the transgenic mice and Y.W. supervised the project and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yizheng Wang.

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Supplementary Figures 1–9 and Supplementary Methods (PDF 2521 kb)

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Zhou, J., Du, W., Zhou, K. et al. Critical role of TRPC6 channels in the formation of excitatory synapses. Nat Neurosci 11, 741–743 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2127

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