Iascone et al. 2020 - Whole-Neuron Synaptic Mapping Reveals Spatially Precise Excitatory/Inhibitory Balance Limiting Dendritic and Somatic Spiking

Reference:

Iascone, D. M., Li, Y., Sümbül, U., Doron, M., Chen, H., Andreu, V., … & Polleux, F.
(2020). Whole-neuron synaptic mapping reveals spatially precise excitatory/inhibitory balance
limiting dendritic and somatic spiking. Neuron, 106(4), 566-578.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627320301380

Technique:

Extremely sparse in utero electroporation of Cre recombinase to label cell (coelectroporate Cre-dependent FlextdTomato), and its inhibitory synapses (co-electroporate
inhibitory postsynaptic scaffolding protein Gephyrin tagged with EGFP). ‘Synapse resolution’
confocal microscopy across several vibratome sections (4% PFA fixed, spanning entire dendritic
arbor) used to map locations of all dendritic spines (excitatory synapses) and Gephyrin-EGFP
spots (inhibitory synapses).

System:

Layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons of the adult mouse primary somatosensory cortex

Summary:

Develops and demonstrates a new technique / tool (Synapse Detector) for
comprehensively mapping the spatial pattern of excitatory and inhibitory synapse onto a single
neuron.