Effective diffusion range of ERK [Extracellular signal-regulated kinase] in hippocampal dendrites

Range ~30 µm
Organism Rat Rattus norvegicus
Reference Panayotis N, Karpova A, Kreutz MR, Fainzilber M. Macromolecular transport in synapse to nucleus communication. Trends Neurosci. 2015 Feb38(2):108-16. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2014.12.001. p.109 right column bottom paragraphPubMed ID25534890
Primary Source J.S. Wiegert, et al. Diffusion and not active transport underlies and limits ERK1/2 synapse-to-nucleus signaling in hippocampal neurons J. Biol. Chem., 282 (2007), pp. 29621–29633PubMed ID17675293
Method Primary source p.9622 left column 4th paragraph:"Here [investigators] investigated the dendritic trafficking and nuclear translocation of ERK1/2 in hippocampal neurons using ERK1 and ERK2 labeled with a recently developed photobleachable and photoactivable tag (ref 34)."
Comments P.109 right column bottom paragraph:"The effective diffusion range of ERK has been estimated to be approximately 30 μm in hippocampal dendrites [primary source] and, moreover, the signaling range might be additionally constrained by phosphatase activity in the cytoplasm [ref 3]. How then might a phosphorylated signaling molecule such as ERK traverse distances of a few hundred microns in a phosphatase-rich environment from synapse to nucleus while maintaining its signaling capacity over periods of tens of minutes or more? Karpova et al. [ref 44] characterized such a mechanism in the course of a study aimed at understanding how the nucleus can distinguish between signaling of synaptic versus extrasynaptic NMDARs [N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors]."
Entered by Uri M
ID 112207