NEU 301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Protein Kinase, Flashcard
Document Summary
Rise in post-synaptic ca2+ (through nmdar) acts as a second messenger. Induction of early ltp involves transient activation of camkii and pkc. Pkmzeta (a variant of pkc) also becomes activated. Pkc/pkmzeta use phosphorylation to carry out the 2 major mechanisms of early-ltp. One is the phosphorylation of existing ampa receptors to increase their activity. Two is the insertion of additional ampa receptors into the post-synaptic membrane. (amp receptor insertion is independent of protein synthesis - these receptors are just trafficked to the post-synaptic membrane) Late ltp is induced by changes in gene expression and protein synthesis brought about by persistent activation of protein kinases (which were activated during early ltp). One such protein kinase is mapk - erk is in the subfamily of mapks. Erk phosphorylates transcription factors such as creb leading to protein synthesis. Synapses at which an nmda current is identified but no ampa currents are observed.
