PSD-95-like membrane associated guanylate kinases (PSD-MAGUKs) and synaptic plasticity

• Main Author: Xu, Weifeng (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (Contributor), Picower Institute for Learning and Memory (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier, 2015-09-18T17:44:50Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 Activity-dependent modification of excitatory synaptic transmission is a fundamental mechanism for developmental plasticity of the neural circuits and experience-dependent plasticity. Synaptic glutamatergic receptors including AMPA receptors and NMDA receptors (AMPARs and NMDARs) are embedded in the postsynaptic density, a highly organized protein network. Overwhelming data have shown that PSD-95-like membrane associated guanylate kinases (PSD-MAGUKs), a major family of scaffold proteins at glutamatergic synapses, regulate basal synaptic AMPAR function and trafficking. It is now clear that PSD-MAGUKs have multifaceted functions in regulating both basal synaptic transmission and synaptic plasticity. Here we discuss recent advancements in understanding the roles of PSD-95 and other family members of PSD-MAGUKs in synaptic plasticity, both as an anchoring protein for synaptic AMPARs and as a signaling scaffold for mediating the interaction of the signaling complex and NMDARs.