Formation and Stability of Synaptic Receptor Domains

TL;DR

This paper presents a reaction-diffusion model explaining how synaptic receptor domains form and remain stable despite rapid receptor turnover, integrating experimental data with theoretical analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a quantitative model showing that receptor-scaffold interactions and receptor diffusion alone can account for synaptic domain formation and stability.

Findings

Receptor-scaffold interactions are sufficient for domain formation.

Rapid receptor diffusion does not prevent domain stability.

The model explains long-term stability despite receptor turnover.

Abstract

Neurotransmitter receptor molecules, concentrated in postsynaptic domains along with scaffold and a number of other molecules, are key regulators of signal transmission across synapses. Employing experiment and theory, we develop a quantitative description of synaptic receptor domains in terms of a reaction-diffusion model. We show that interactions between only receptor and scaffold molecules, together with the rapid diffusion of receptors on the cell membrane, are sufficient for the formation and stable characteristic size of synaptic receptor domains. Our work reconciles long-term stability of synaptic receptor domains with rapid turnover and diffusion of individual receptors.