BMI Progress Reports 2020 // Prof. McCabe's Lab - Jamshid Asadzadeh : Glutamate receptors interact with transcription factors to regulate synaptic scaling

Synaptic scaling, where postsynaptic receptor levels or composition are altered in response to changes in network activity, is an important adaptive mechanism to maintain circuit homeostasis. Here we describe a novel scaling activity of glutamate receptors in Drosophila motor synapses. Surprisingly, we demonstrate that regulation of this scaling process employs direct activity-dependent molecular interaction of glutamate receptors with postsynaptic transcription factors. Our results reveal a novel mechanism for activity-dependent gene regulation, where changes in synaptic activity can immediately influence neuronal transcription factor function, without the requirement for intermediary signal transduction cascades.