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PNAS 110 (4): 1482-1487

Copyright © 2013 by the National Academy of Sciences.

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES / NEUROSCIENCE

Increased neuronal activity fragments the Golgi complex

Desiree A. Thayer, Yuh Nung Jan, and Lily Yeh Jan1

Department of Physiology, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158

Contributed by Lily Yeh Jan, December 8, 2012 (sent for review June 20, 2012)

Abstract: The Golgi complex is essential for many aspects of cellular function, including trafficking and sorting of membrane and secretory proteins and posttranslational modification by glycosylation. We observed reversible fragmentation of the Golgi complex in cultured hippocampal neurons cultured in hyperexcitable conditions. In addition, Golgi fragmentation was found in cultured neurons with hyperactivity due to prolonged blockade of GABAA-mediated inhibition or withdrawal of NMDA receptor antagonism. The interplay between neuronal hyperactivity and Golgi structure established in this study thus reveals a previously uncharacterized impact of neuronal activity on organelle structure. This finding may have important roles in protein processing and trafficking in the Golgi as well as effects on neuronal signaling.

Key Words: hyperexcitability • activity-dependent

Author contributions: D.A.T., Y.N.J., and L.Y.J. designed research; D.A.T. performed research; D.A.T., Y.N.J., and L.Y.J. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; D.A.T. analyzed data; and D.A.T. and L.Y.J. wrote the paper.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1220978110/-/DCSupplemental.

1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Lily.Jan{at}ucsf.edu.

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