Event:

Titel: Mechanisms of focal acetylcholine receptor transport to the
postsynaptic membrane of the neuromuscular junction.

Abstract: The high density of acetylcholine receptors (AChR) at the neuromuscular junction is a prerequisite for successful synaptic transmission and the aggregation of AChRs in the postsynaptic plasma membrane is a key step during synaptogenesis. The lab of H. R. Brenner has investigated the role of the cytoskeleton, particularly the subsynaptic microtubule network in the local insertion of AChRs into the postsynaptic membrane of the neuromuscular junction. They could show that the
extracellular matrix protein agrin induces the formation of the dense network of microtubules in the subsynaptic cytoplasm and that this, in turn, regulates acetylcholine receptor insertion into the postsynaptic membrane. The activation of an agrin-induced intracellular signaling cascade leads to the local capturing of dynamic microtubules, which is mediated to a large extent by the microtubule plus-end tracking proteins CLASP2 and CLIP-170. These results identify an essential transport system, organized by agrin, for the precise delivery of AChRs from the subsynaptic nuclei to the overlying postsynaptic membrane.