The releasable factor adenosine blocks the formation of long-term potentiation (LTP). These experiments used this observation to uncover the synaptic processes that stabilize the potentiation effect. Brief adenosine infusion blocked stimulation-induced actin polymerization within dendritic spines along with LTP itself in control rat hippocampal slices but not in those pretreated with the actin filament stabilizer jasplakinolide. Adenosine also blocked activity-driven phosphorylation of synaptic cofilin but not of synaptic p21-activated kinase (PAK). A search for the upstream origins of these effects showed that adenosine suppressed RhoA activity but only modestly affected Rac and Cdc42. A RhoA kinase (ROCK) inhibitor reproduced adenosine's effects on cofilin phosphorylation, spine actin polymerization, and LTP, whereas a Rac inhibitor did not. However, inhibitors of Rac or PAK did prolong LTP's vulnerability to reversal by latrunculin, a toxin which blocks actin filament assembly. Thus, LTP induction initiates two synaptic signaling cascades: one (RhoA-ROCK-cofilin) leads to actin polymerization, whereas the other (Rac-PAK) stabilizes the newly formed filaments.

Stabilization of long-term potentiation (LTP) is commonly proposed to involve changes in synaptic morphology and reorganization of the spine cytoskeleton. Here we tested whether, as predicted from this hypothesis, induction of LTP by theta-burst stimulation activates an actin regulatory pathway and alters synapse morphology within the same dendritic spines. TBS increased severalfold the numbers of spines containing phosphorylated (p) p21-activated kinase (PAK) or its downstream target cofilin; the latter regulates actin filament assembly. The PAK/cofilin phosphoproteins were increased at 2 min but not 30 s post-TBS, peaked at 7 min, and then declined. Double immunostaining for the postsynaptic density protein PSD95 revealed that spines with high pPAK or pCofilin levels had larger synapses (ϩ60 -70%) with a more normal size frequency distribution than did neighboring spines. Based on these results and simulations of shape changes to synapse-like objects, we propose that theta stimulation markedly increases the probability that a spine will enter a state characterized by a large, ovoid synapse and that this morphology is important for expression and later stabilization of LTP.

Estrogen, in addition to its genomic effects in brain, causes rapid and reversible changes to synaptic operations. We report here that these acute actions are due to selective activation of an actin-signaling cascade normally used in the production of long-term potentiation (LTP). Estrogen, or a selective agonist of the steroid's ␤-receptor, caused a modest increase in fast glutamatergic transmission and a pronounced facilitation of LTP in adult hippocampal slices; both effects were completely eliminated by latrunculin, a toxin that prevents actin filament assembly. Estrogen also increased spine concentrations of filamentous actin and strongly enhanced its polymerization in association with LTP. A search for the origins of these effects showed that estrogen activates the small GTPase RhoA and phosphorylates (inactivates) the actin severing protein cofilin, a downstream target of RhoA. Moreover, an antagonist of RhoA kinase (ROCK) blocked estrogen's synaptic effects. Estrogen thus emerges as a positive modulator of a RhoAϾROCKϾLIM kinaseϾcofilin pathway that regulates the subsynaptic cytoskeleton. It does not, however, strongly affect a second LTP-related pathway, involving the GTPases Rac and Cdc42 and their effector p21-activated kinase, which may explain why its acute effects are reversible. Finally, ovariectomy depressed RhoA activity, spine cytoskeletal plasticity, and LTP, whereas brief infusions of estrogen rescued plasticity, suggesting that the deficits in plasticity arise from acute, as well as genomic, consequences of hormone loss.

Neurexins are recognized as key organizers of synapses that are essential for normal brain function. However, it is unclear whether neurexins are fundamental building blocks of all synapses with similar overall functions, or context-dependent specifiers of synapse properties. To address this question, we produced triple conditional knockout mice that allow ablating all neurexin transcripts in mice. Using neuron-specific manipulations combined with immunocytochemistry, paired-recordings, and two-photon Ca2+-imaging, we analyzed excitatory synapses formed by climbing fibers on Purkinje cells in cerebellum, and inhibitory synapses formed by parvalbumin- or by somatostatin-positive interneurons on pyramidal layer 5 neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex. After pan-neurexin deletions, we observed in these synapses severe but dramatically different phenotypes that ranged from major impairments in their distribution and function (climbing-fiber synapses) to large decreases in synapse numbers (parvalbumin-positive synapses) and severe alterations in action-potential-induced presynaptic Ca2+-transients (somatostatin-positive synapses). Thus, neurexins primarily function as context-dependent specifiers of synapses.