Abstract
Neurons adjust their excitability, connectivity and structure in response to changes in activity, yet how neurons sense their activity level remains unclear. We have found that motorneurons cell-autonomously monitor their activity by responding to the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), a metabolic mitochondrial byproduct. The highly conserved Parkinson's disease-linked protein DJ1b is central to this, acting as a redox sensor to regulate pre- and postsynaptic structural plasticity via activation of the PI3Kinase pathway.
Copyright
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.