A Dynamic Corral Model of Receptor Trafficking at a Synapse

The postsynaptic density (PSD) is a cytoskeletal specialization within the postsynaptic membrane of a neuron that helps to concentrate and organize neurotransmitter receptors at a chemical synapse. The total number of receptors within the PSD, which is a major factor in determining the physiological strength or weight of a synapse, fluctuates due to the surface diffusion of receptors into and out of the PSD, and the interactions of receptors with scaffolding proteins and cytoskeletal elements within the PSD. In this article, we present a stochastic model of protein receptor trafficking at the PSD that takes into account these various processes. The PSD is treated as a stochastically gated corral, which contributes a source of extrinsic or environmental noise that supplements the intrinsic noise arising from small receptor numbers. Using a combination of stochastic analysis and Monte Carlo simulations, we determine the time-dependent variation in the mean and variance of synaptic receptor numbers for a variety of initial conditions that simulate fluorescence recovery after photobleaching experiments, and indicate how such data might be used to infer certain properties of the PSD.     

CHANGE OF ACID AGGLUTINATION OPTIMUM AS INDEX OF BACTERIAL MUTATION

A distinct difference in acid agglutination optimum for Type D (bacillus of rabbit septicemia) and its mutant form, Type G, has been observed. The optimum for Type D lies between pH 3.5 and pH 3.0. This changes during mutation, the resulting Type G mutants having in general an optimum lying between pH 4.7 and pH 3.8. The constancy of the optimum for Type D is very strict, while that for Type G is slightly less so. The variation is never so great as to cause an overlapping of optima and consequent failure of differentiation. These acid agglutination optima are in the nature of physical constants for the two types and would imply a fundamental difference in the chemical constitution of the organisms. Animal passage, far from causing a reversion of the mutant Type G to the primordial Type D form, brings about a still greater instability in the presence of H ions.