Diacylglycerol kinases in the coordination of synaptic plasticity

• Main Authors: Dongwon Lee, Eunjoon Kim, Keiko Tanaka-Yamamoto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-08-01
• Series: Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology
• Subjects: Diacylglycerol Kinase; Long-Term Potentiation; Protein Kinase C; synaptic plasticity; Long-term depression
• Online Access: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fcell.2016.00092/full

Synaptic plasticity is activity-dependent modification of the efficacy of synaptic transmission. Although detailed mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity are diverse and vary at different types of synapses, diacylglycerol (DAG)-associated signaling has been considered as an important regulator of many forms of synaptic plasticity, including long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD). Recent evidence indicate that DAG kinases (DGKs), which phosphorylate DAG to phosphatidic acid to terminate DAG signaling, are important regulators of LTP and LTD, as supported by the results from mice lacking specific DGK isoforms. This review will summarize these studies and discuss how specific DGK isoforms distinctly regulate different forms of synaptic plasticity at pre- and postsynaptic sites. In addition, we propose a general role of DGKs as coordinators of synaptic plasticity that make local synaptic environments more permissive for synaptic plasticity by regulating DAG concentration and interacting with other synaptic proteins.