First Author | Otto C | Year | 2001 |
Journal | J Neurosci | Volume | 21 |
Issue | 15 | Pages | 5520-7 |
PubMed ID | 11466423 | Mgi Jnum | J:76715 |
Mgi Id | MGI:2180107 | Doi | 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.21-15-05520.2001 |
Citation | Otto C, et al. (2001) Impairment of mossy fiber long-term potentiation and associative learning in pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide type I receptor-deficient mice. J Neurosci 21(15):5520-7 |
abstractText | The pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP) type I receptor (PAC1) is a G-protein-coupled receptor binding the strongly conserved neuropeptide PACAP with 1000-fold higher affinity than the related peptide vasoactive intestinal peptide. PAC1-mediated signaling has been implicated in neuronal differentiation and synaptic plasticity. To gain further insight into the biological significance of PAC1-mediated signaling in vivo, we generated two different mutant mouse strains, harboring either a complete or a forebrain-specific inactivation of PAC1. Mutants from both strains show a deficit in contextual fear conditioning, a hippocampus-dependent associative learning paradigm. In sharp contrast, amygdala-dependent cued fear conditioning remains intact. Interestingly, no deficits in other hippocampus-dependent tasks modeling declarative learning such as the Morris water maze or the social transmission of food preference are observed. At the cellular level, the deficit in hippocampus-dependent associative learning is accompanied by an impairment of mossy fiber long-term potentiation (LTP). Because the hippocampal expression of PAC1 is restricted to mossy fiber terminals, we conclude that presynaptic PAC1-mediated signaling at the mossy fiber synapse is involved in both LTP and hippocampus-dependent associative learning. |