Abstract
To understand the biochemical signals regulated by neural activity, it is necessary to measure protein-protein interactions and enzymatic activity in neuronal microcompartments such as axons, dendrites and their spines. We combined two-photon excitation laser scanning with fluorescence lifetime imaging to measure fluorescence resonance energy transfer at high resolutions in brain slices. We also developed sensitive fluorescent protein–based sensors for the activation of the small GTPase protein Ras with slow (FRas) and fast (FRas-F) kinetics. Using FRas-F, we found in CA1 hippocampal neurons that trains of back-propagating action potentials rapidly and reversibly activated Ras in dendrites and spines. The relationship between firing rate and Ras activation was highly nonlinear (Hill coefficient ∼5). This steep dependence was caused by a highly cooperative interaction between calcium ions (Ca2+) and Ras activators. The Ras pathway therefore functions as a supersensitive threshold detector for neural activity and Ca2+ concentration.
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Acknowledgements
We thank A. Karpova for mutagenesis of mEGFP; X. Zhang for preparation of cultured slices; R. Tsien (University of California, San Diego), D.W. Piston (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee), M. Matsuda (Osaka University, Osaka, Japan), A. Miyawaki (Riken Brain Science Institute, Saitama, Japan) and T. Balla (US National Institutes of Health) for plasmids; and A. Karpova and V. Iyer for critical reading of the manuscript. The research is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the US National Institutes of Health, the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (R.Y.), the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (H.Z.) and a David and Fanny Luke Fellowship (C.D.H.).
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Supplementary information
Supplementary Fig. 1
The number of photons required to detect a change in binding fraction (PAD) from 5% to 15% with signal-to-noise ratio ∼ 1 as a function of FRET efficiency (YFRET) (PDF 200 kb)
Supplementary Fig. 2
Fluorescence decay curves. (PDF 419 kb)
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Yasuda, R., Harvey, C., Zhong, H. et al. Supersensitive Ras activation in dendrites and spines revealed by two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging. Nat Neurosci 9, 283–291 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1635
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1635
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