eLife assessment: Postsynaptic mitochondria are positioned to support functional diversity of dendritic spines
Year: 2023
Type: peer-review
Abstract: Postsynaptic mitochondria are critical for the development, plasticity, and maintenance of synaptic inputs.However, their relationship to synaptic structure and functional activity is unknown.We examined a correlative dataset from ferret visual cortex with in vivo two-photon calcium imaging of dendritic spines during visual stimulation and electron microscopy reconstructions of spine ultrastructure, investigating mitochondrial abundance near functionally and structurally characterized spines.Surprisingly, we found no correlation to structural measures of synaptic strength.Instead, we found that mitochondria are positioned near spines with orientation preferences that are dissimilar to the somatic preference.Additionally, we found that mitochondria are positioned near groups of spines with heterogeneous orientation preferences.For a subset of spines with a mitochondrion in the head or neck, synapses were larger and exhibited greater selectivity to visual stimuli than those without a mitochondrion.Our data suggest mitochondria are not necessarily positioned to support the energy needs of strong spines, but rather support the structurally and functionally diverse inputs innervating the basal dendrites of cortical neurons. eLife assessmentThis study reports valuable findings on the correlation between the positions of dendritic mitochondria and the orientation preference of calcium responses of individual spines.The conclusion about the biased localization of dendritic mitochondria near functional diverse spines is informative to understand the functions of dendritic mitochondria.The experimental evidence supporting the conclusion is compelling.
Author: Jun Ding
Institution: Stanford University
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4389435532