Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology
Author: Josefina Alejandra Pogonza Bandrowsky | Email: josefina.pogonza.bandrowsky@mi.unc.edu.ar
Josefina Alejandra Pogonza Bandrowsky1°, Guillermina Bruno1°, Nahir Guadalupe Gazal1°, Axel Gorostiza2°, Nahuel Zamponi3°, Nicolás Unsain1°
1° Laboratorio de Neurobiología, Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra, INIMEC-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC), Córdoba, Argentina
2° Department of Animal Physiology, Institute of Zoology, University of Cologne, 50674 Cologne, Germany
3° Division of Hematology and Oncology, Weill Cornell Medicine, NY, Estados Unidos
Actin and spectrin, along with associated proteins, form a membrane-associated periodic skeleton (MPS) that is ubiquitously present in axons and dendrites of all types of neurons examined so far. The MPS consists of transversal actin “rings” along the neurite and spaced every 190 nm by α/β spectrin tetramers. Studies on erythrocytes suggested that protein 4.1 stabilizes the spectrin-actin interaction and their interaction with the plasma membrane. However, protein 4.1 has not been described as part of the neuronal MPS yet. In mammalian neurons, two versions of protein 4.1 are expressed, 4.1N and 4.1B, and neither of them has been studied in detail in neurons. The main goal of my graduate thesis project is to determine the subcellular distribution of 4.1N and 4.1B and examine if they are part of the MPS. We will first determine the subcellular distribution of proteins 4.1N and 4.1B in cultured mouse hippocampal neurons at various developmental stages using immunocytochemistry and quantitative confocal microscopy. Subsequently, we will use the super-resolution microscopy technique STED, to determine their nanoscale distribution and their possible co-distribution with components of the MPS. We will share the detailed experimental designs, and preliminary results.