Persico, A. M. (Antonio M.)
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- Barrel pattern formation requires serotonin uptake by thalamocortical afferents, and not vesicular monoamine release(Society for Neuroscience, 2001) Moessner, R. (Rainald); Murphy, D. L. (Dennis L.); Uhl, G. R. (George R.); Cabib, S. (Simona); Marino, R. (Ramona); Baldi, A. (Alfonso); Hall, S. F. (Scott F.); Persico, A. M. (Antonio M.); Pascucci, T. (Tiziana); Arellano, J. (Jon); Revay, R. S. (Randal S.); Gimenez-Amaya, J.M. (José Manuel); Sora, I. (Ichiro); Mengual, E. (Elisa); Conciatori, M. (Monica); De-Felipe, J. (Javier); Keller, F. (Flavio); Lesch, K. P. (K. Peter)Thalamocortical neurons innervating the barrel cortex in neonatal rodents transiently store serotonin (5-HT) in synaptic vesicles by expressing the plasma membrane serotonin transporter (5-HTT) and the vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT2). 5-HTT knock-out (ko) mice reveal a nearly complete absence of 5-HT in the cerebral cortex by immunohistochemistry, and of barrels, both at P7 and adulthood. Quantitative electron microscopy reveals that 5-HTT ko affects neither the density of synapses nor the length of synaptic contacts in layer IV. VMAT2 ko mice, completely lacking activity-dependent vesicular release of monoamines including 5-HT, also show a complete lack of 5-HT in the cortex but display largely normal barrel fields, despite sometimes markedly reduced postnatal growth. Transient 5-HTT expression is thus required for barrel pattern formation, whereas activity-dependent vesicular 5-HT release is not.