How to assemble a glutamate receptor

Abstract

Neuroscience The biogenesis of the AMPA glutamate receptor, which mediates fast synaptic transmission in the central nervous system, is not understood. Using a variety of high-resolution techniques, as well as behavioral studies, Schwenk et al. identified the protein constituents of the production line in the endoplasmic reticulum that assembles functional AMPA receptors in the mammalian brain. These protein constituents help to generate tetrameric assemblies from monomers of pore-forming receptor subunits. Genetic deletion of the oligomerizing proteins profoundly altered AMPA receptor–mediated neurotransmission and synaptogenesis, abolished activity-driven plasticity, and severely impaired learning in mice. Neuron 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.08.033 (2019).