Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2004 Oct 20;24(42):9244-9.
doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3339-04.2004.

Cell adhesion molecules in synapse formation

Philip Washbourne  1 , Alexander Dityatev, Peter Scheiffele, Thomas Biederer, Joshua A Weiner, Karen S Christopherson, Alaa El-Husseini
Affiliations
Review

Cell adhesion molecules in synapse formation

Philip Washbourne et al. J Neurosci. .

Abstract

Neuronal transmission relies on signals transmitted through a vast array of excitatory and inhibitory neuronal synaptic connections. How do axons communicate with dendrites to build synapses, and what molecules regulate this interaction? There is a wealth of evidence suggesting that cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) provide much of the information required for synapse formation. This review highlights the molecular mechanisms used by CAMs to regulate presynaptic and postsynaptic differentiation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Diagram depicting the morphological transformation of an axodendritic contact to a mature synapse. Contact between an axonal growth cone filopodia and a dendrite via the homophilic adhesion molecule SynCAM 1 (blue-pink) develops to form a stereotypical excitatory synapse. SynCAM, an example of one of several synaptically localized adhesion molecules, remains at the synapse to hold the presynaptic and postsynaptic terminals together. The presynaptic terminal is filled with synaptic vesicles (white spheres), and neurotransmitter receptors (green) are recruited to the postsynaptic membrane.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Adams JC (2001) Thrombospondins: multifunctional regulators of cell interactions. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol 17: 25-51. - PubMed
    1. Adams JC, Tucker RP (2000) The thrombospondin type 1 repeat (TSR) superfamily: diverse proteins with related roles in neuronal development. Dev Dyn 218: 280-299. - PubMed
    1. Ahmari SE, Buchanan J, Smith SJ (2000) Assembly of presynaptic active zones from cytoplasmic transport packets. Nat Neurosci 3: 445-451. - PubMed
    1. Biederer T, Südhof TC (2001) Cask and protein 4.1 support F-actin nucleation on neurexins. J Biol Chem 276: 47869-47876. - PubMed
    1. Biederer T, Sara Y, Mozhayeva M, Atasoy D, Liu X, Kavalali ET, Sudhof TC (2002) SynCAM, a synaptic adhesion molecule that drives synapse assembly. Science 297: 1525-1531. - PubMed

Substances

LinkOut - more resources