Dopamine maintains network synchrony via direct modulation of gap junctions in the crustacean cardiac ganglion
- University of Missouri, United States
Abstract
The Large Cell (LC) motor neurons of the crab cardiac ganglion have variable membrane conductance magnitudes even within the same individual, yet produce identical synchronized activity in the intact network. In a previous study we blocked a subset of K+ conductances across LCs, resulting in loss of synchronous activity (Lane et al., 2016). In this study, we hypothesized that this same variability of conductances makes LCs vulnerable to desynchronization during neuromodulation. We exposed the LCs to serotonin (5HT) and dopamine (DA) while recording simultaneously from multiple LCs. Both amines had distinct excitatory effects on LC output, but only 5HT caused desynchronized output. We further determined that DA rapidly increased gap junctional conductance. Co-application of both amines induced 5HT-like output, but waveforms remained synchronized. Furthermore, DA prevented desynchronization induced by the K+ channel blocker tetraethylammonium (TEA), suggesting that dopaminergic modulation of electrical coupling plays a protective role in maintaining network synchrony.
Data availability
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files.
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Author details
Funding
National Institutes of Health (R01MH046742-29)
- David J Schulz
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2018, Lane et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Dopamine maintains network synchrony via direct modulation of gap junctions in the crustacean cardiac ganglion
eLife 7:e39368.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.39368
