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Fig. 5 | Neural Development

Fig. 5

From: Assembly and maintenance of GABAergic and Glycinergic circuits in the mammalian nervous system

Fig. 5

Cross-talk between inhibitory neurotransmitter circuits. In some circuits, perturbing either GABAergic or glycinergic signaling leads to potentially compensatory postsynaptic changes. In both the spinal cord and retina, there are conditions in which there is cross-talk between inhibitory neurotransmitter circuits. In the spinal cord, oscillator mice carry a mutation that results in non-functional glycine receptors (non-α1 subunit containing glycine receptors, faded) and spastic mice carry a mutation that results in a dramatic reduction of glycine receptors at the synapse (dotted lines). Both mutations result in decreased glycinergic inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs, red traces). However, in the spastic mice there is an increase in extrasynaptic GABAA receptors and in the amplitude of GABAergic IPSCs (blue trace) [149, 150]. In the wildtype retina, Neuroligin 2 (NL2) is found at GABAergic synapses, and NL4 is localized at glycinergic synapses. In the retina of a NL4 knockout (KO) animal, α1-containing glycine receptors are lost, but there is no change in the expression of other NLs. However, in the NL2 KO retina, GABAAα3 and GABAAγ2-containing synapses are down-regulated, and there is an up-regulation of NL4 [69, 70]

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