Postsynaptic localization of PSD-95 is regulated by all three pathways downstream of TrkB signaling

Akira Yoshii; Martha Constantine-Paton

doi:10.3389/fnsyn.2014.00006

Postsynaptic localization of PSD-95 is regulated by all three pathways downstream of TrkB signaling

Front Synaptic Neurosci. 2014 Mar 31:6:6. doi: 10.3389/fnsyn.2014.00006. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Akira Yoshii¹, Martha Constantine-Paton²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, IL, USA ; McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA, USA ; Constantine-Paton Laboratory, Department of Brain and Cognitive Science, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA USA.
² McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA, USA ; Constantine-Paton Laboratory, Department of Brain and Cognitive Science, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA USA ; Department of Biology, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA, USA.

Abstract

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and its receptor TrkB regulate synaptic plasticity. TrkB triggers three downstream signaling pathways; Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), Phospholipase Cγ (PLCγ) and Mitogen activated protein kinases/Extracellular signal-regulated kinases (MAPK/ERK). We previously showed two distinct mechanisms whereby BDNF-TrkB pathway controls trafficking of PSD-95, which is the major scaffold at excitatory synapses and is critical for synapse maturation. BDNF activates the PI3K-Akt pathway and regulates synaptic delivery of PSD-95 via vesicular transport (Yoshii and Constantine-Paton, 2007). BDNF-TrkB signaling also triggers PSD-95 palmitoylation and its transport to synapses through the phosphorylation of the palmitoylation enzyme ZDHHC8 by a protein kinase C (PKC; Yoshii etal., 2011). The second study used PKC inhibitors chelerythrine as well as a synthetic zeta inhibitory peptide (ZIP) which was originally designed to block the brain-specific PKC isoform protein kinase Mϖ (PKMϖ). However, recent studies raise concerns about specificity of ZIP. Here, we assessed the contribution of TrkB and its three downstream pathways to the synaptic distribution of endogenous PSD-95 in cultured neurons using chemical and genetic interventions. We confirmed that TrkB, PLC, and PI3K were critical for the postsynaptic distribution of PSD-95. Furthermore, suppression of MAPK/ERK also disrupted PSD-95 expression. Next, we examined the contribution of PKC. While both chelerythrine and ZIP suppressed the postsynaptic localization of PSD-95, RNA interference for PKMϖ did not have a significant effect. This result suggests that the ZIP peptide, widely used as the "specific" PKMϖ antagonist by many investigators may block a PKC variant other than PKMϖ such as PKCλ/ι. Our results indicate that TrkB regulates postsynaptic localization of PSD-95 through all three downstream pathways, but also recommend further work to identify other PKC variants that regulate palmitoylation and synaptic localization of PSD-95.

Keywords: BDNF; MAP kinase; PI-3 kinase; PKMϖ; PSD-95; TrkB; protein kinase C; synapse formation.

Abstract

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