Paper Info
Title
The secrets of a functional synapse--from a computational and experimental viewpoint.
Abstract
Neuronal communication is tightly regulated in time and in space. The neuronal transmission takes place in the nerve terminal, at a specialized structure called the synapse. Following neuronal activation, an electrical signal triggers neurotransmitter (NT) release at the active zone. The process starts by the signal reaching the synapse followed by a fusion of the synaptic vesicle and diffusion of the released NT in the synaptic cleft; the NT then binds to the appropriate receptor, and as a result, a potential change at the target cell membrane is induced. The entire process lasts for only a fraction of a millisecond. An essential property of the synapse is its capacity to undergo biochemical and morphological changes, a phenomenon that is referred to as synaptic plasticity.In this survey, we consider the mammalian brain synapse as our model. We take a cell biological and a molecular perspective to present fundamental properties of the synapse:(i) the accurate and efficient delivery of organelles and material to and from the synapse; (ii) the coordination of gene expression that underlies a particular NT phenotype; (iii) the induction of local protein expression in a subset of stimulated synapses. We describe the computational facet and the formulation of the problem for each of these topics.Predicting the behavior of a synapse under changing conditions must incorporate genomics and proteomics information with new approaches in computational biology.
Year
DOI
Venue
2006
10.1186/1471-2105-7-S1-S6
BMC Bioinformatics
Keywords
Field
DocType
algorithms,proteomics,synaptic plasticity,synaptic transmission,computational biology,genomics,synapses,gene expression,synaptic vesicle,bioinformatics,neuronal activity,active zone,phenotype,microarrays,signal transduction,protein expression
Ribbon synapse,Synapse,Neurotransmission,Neuronal Transmission,Active zone,Biology,Synaptic vesicle,Cell biology,Excitatory synapse,Synaptic plasticity,Bioinformatics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
7 Suppl 1
S-1
1471-2105
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
21
0.37
1
Authors
1
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Michal Linial11502149.92