Cleanthe Spanaki, Kyriaki Sidiropoulou, Zoe Petraki, Konstantinos Diskos, Xanthippi Konstantoudaki, Emmanouela Volitaki, Konstantina Mylonaki, Maria Savvaki, Andreas Plaitakis
The human brain is characterized by the upregulation of synaptic, mainly glutamatergic, transmission, but its evolutionary origin(s) remain elusive. Here we approached this fundamental question by studying mice transgenic (Tg) for GLUD2 , a human gene involved in glutamate metabolism that emerged in the hominoid and evolved concomitantly with brain expansion. We demonstrate that Tg mice express the human enzyme in hippocampal astrocytes and CA1-CA3 pyramidal neurons. LTP, evoked by theta-burst stimulation, is markedly enhanced in the CA3-CA1 synapses of Tg mice, with patch-clamp recordings from CA1 pyramidal neurons revealing increased sNMDA currents...
February 16, 2024: IScience