Compartmentalized Signaling in Neurons: From Cell Biology to Neuroscience

Marco Terenzio, Giampietro Schiavo, Mike Fainzilber

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Neurons are the largest known cells, with complex and highly polarized morphologies. As such, neuronal signaling is highly compartmentalized, requiring sophisticated transfer mechanisms to convey and integrate information within and between sub-neuronal compartments. Here, we survey different modes of compartmentalized signaling in neurons, highlighting examples wherein the fundamental cell biological processes of protein synthesis and degradation, membrane trafficking, and organelle transport are employed to enable the encoding and integration of information, locally and globally within a neuron. Comparisons to other cell types indicate that neurons accentuate widely shared mechanisms, providing invaluable models for the compartmentalization and transfer mechanisms required and used by most eukaryotic cells. Terenzio et al. survey the influence of neuronal size and polarization on compartmentalized signaling, highlighting roles for protein synthesis and degradation, membrane trafficking, and organelle transport. Neuronal mechanisms provide invaluable models for studying the cell biology of signaling in diverse cell types.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)667-679
Number of pages13
JournalNeuron
Volume96
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Nov 2017

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Neuroscience

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