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Chapter 7
Molecular biology of postsynaptic structures
Flaminio Cattabeni, Fabrizio Gardoni, and Monica Di Luca
Synapses are specialized sites of communication between neurons in the brain that are vital for interneuronal signaling and necessary for the processing and integration of information. Efficient and plastic signal transduction at synapses is critical for the cor-rect functioning of the synapse and information processing in the nervous system. The strength of individual central nervous system (CNS) synapses is thought to be con-trolled by signaling machinery that regulates the number and activity of postsynaptic receptor ion channels.
The neurotransmitter glutamate mediates the majority of excitatory synaptic trans-mission in the brain. Excitatory glutamatergic synapses feature a prominent thickening at the cytoplasmic surface of the postsynaptic membrane at sites of close opposition to the presynaptic terminal for which the term Post Synaptic Density (PSD) was coined.
Electron-microscopy studies have identified in the 1950s the PSD as an electron-dense structure beneath the postsynaptic membrane in register with the active zone of the presynaptic compartment (Palay 1956). The thickness and density of PSD is variable and falls into two categories: type I, where PSD is electron dense and its size exceeds that of nerve terminals (excitatory glutamatergic synapse); it can be described as a kind of web adhering to the postsynaptic membrane; type II, where PSD is less electron-dense and its size is similar to the presynaptic thickening (GABAergic synapse).