Barrel Pattern Formation Requires Serotonin Uptake by Thalamocortical Afferents, and Not Vesicular Monoamine Release

• DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.21-17-06862.2001
• Publication Date: 2018-04-09T00:15:16Z
• Authors: Antonio M. Persico; Elisa Mengual; Rainald Moessner; Scott F. Hall; Randal S. Revay; Ichiro Sora; Jon Arellano; Javier DeFelipe; José Manuel Gimén...; Monica Conciatori; Ramona Marino; Alfonso Baldi; Simona Cabib; Tiziana Pascucci; George R. Uhl; Dennis L. Murphy; K. Peter Lesch; Flavio Keller
• Keywords: Vesicular monoamine transporter; Barrel cortex; Vesicular Transport Proteins

Thalamocortical neurons innervating the barrel cortex in neonatal rodents transiently store serotonin (5-HT) synaptic vesicles by expressing plasma membrane transporter (5-HTT) and vesicular monoamine (VMAT2). 5-HTT knock-out (ko) mice reveal a nearly complete absence of 5-HT cerebral immunohistochemistry, barrels, both at P7 adulthood. Quantitative electron microscopy reveals that ko affects neither density synapses nor length contacts layer IV. VMAT2 mice, completely lacking activity-dependent release monoamines including 5-HT, also show lack but display largely normal fields, despite sometimes markedly reduced postnatal growth. Transient expression is thus required for pattern formation, whereas not.