2009/01/01 by Elinor Lazarov, Melanie Dannemeyer, Barbara Feulner +5 · 1 voice
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Health Professions · Neuroscience · #Action (physics) #Aging, Elder Care, and Social Issues #Axon #Axon Guidance and Neuronal Signaling #Cluster analysis #Computer science #Diffusion and Search Dynamics #Encoding (memory) #Feature (linguistics) #Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms #Key (lock) #Neural dynamics and brain function #Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research #q-bio.NC
paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/sciadv.aau8621
published as Science Advances Vol. 4, no. 11, eaau8621; 28 Nov 2018 · Title adjusted, no other changes
openalex publication_date 2009/01/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · arxiv published 2017/11/09 · arxiv created 2018/10/19 · arxiv updated 2018/12/07 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/24
Central neurons initiate action potentials (APs) in the axon initial segment (AIS), a compartment characterized by a high concentration of voltage-dependent ion channels and specialized cytoskeletal anchoring proteins arranged in a regular nanoscale pattern. Although the AIS was a key evolutionary innovation in neurons, the functional benefits it confers are not clear. Using a mutation of the AIS cytoskeletal protein βIV-spectrin, we here establish an in vitro model of neurons with a perturbed AIS architecture that retains nanoscale order but loses the ability to maintain a high Na<sub>V</sub> density. Combining experiments and simulations, we show that a high Na<sub>V</sub> density in the AIS is not required for axonal AP initiation; it is, however, crucial for a high bandwidth of information encoding and AP timing precision. Our results provide the first experimental demonstration of axonal AP initiation without high axonal channel density and suggest that increasing the bandwidth of the neuronal code and, hence, the computational efficiency of network function, was a major benefit of the evolution of the AIS.