Gap junctional coupling in the vertebrate retina: Variations on one theme? |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, New York University, 550 First Avenue, MSB 149, New York, NY 10016, USA;2. Department of Experimental Zoology and Neurobiology, University of Pécs, Ifjúság Str. 6, Pécs 7624, Hungary;3. Institute of Physical Education and Sport Science, University of Pécs, Ifjúság Str. 6, Pécs 7624, Hungary;4. János Szentágothai Research Center, Ifjúság Str. 20, Pécs 7624, Hungary;1. State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China;2. Research Center of Kaolin Engineering Technology, Huaibei 235047, China;1. The Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health, Ministry of Agriculture, State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150001, China;2. Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang 524001, China;1. Kemerovo State University, Kemerovo, Russia;2. Federal State Budget Scientific Institution «The Federal Research Center of Coal and Coal Chemistry of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences», Kemerovo, Russian Federation;3. Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb, Croatia;1. Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1104, United States;2. School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, PO Box 874501, Tempe, AZ 85287-4501, United States |
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| Abstract: | Gap junctions connect cells in the bodies of all multicellular organisms, forming either homologous or heterologous (i.e. established between identical or different cell types, respectively) cell-to-cell contacts by utilizing identical (homotypic) or different (heterotypic) connexin protein subunits. Gap junctions in the nervous system serve electrical signaling between neurons, thus they are also called electrical synapses. Such electrical synapses are particularly abundant in the vertebrate retina where they are specialized to form links between neurons as well as glial cells. In this article, we summarize recent findings on retinal cell-to-cell coupling in different vertebrates and identify general features in the light of the evergrowing body of data. In particular, we describe and discuss tracer coupling patterns, connexin proteins, junctional conductances and modulatory processes. This multispecies comparison serves to point out that most features are remarkably conserved across the vertebrate classes, including (i) the cell types connected via electrical synapses; (ii) the connexin makeup and the conductance of each cell-to-cell contact; (iii) the probable function of each gap junction in retinal circuitry; (iv) the fact that gap junctions underlie both electrical and/or tracer coupling between glial cells. These pan-vertebrate features thus demonstrate that retinal gap junctions have changed little during the over 500 million years of vertebrate evolution. Therefore, the fundamental architecture of electrically coupled retinal circuits seems as old as the retina itself, indicating that gap junctions deeply incorporated in retinal wiring from the very beginning of the eye formation of vertebrates. In addition to hard wiring provided by fast synaptic transmitter-releasing neurons and soft wiring contributed by peptidergic, aminergic and purinergic systems, electrical coupling may serve as the ‘skeleton’ of lateral processing, enabling important functions such as signal averaging and synchronization. |
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