Postsynaptically it may reduce signaling (including synaptic plasticity)

mediated by synaptically evoked elevations of [Ca2+]i. These actions will also impact on energy consumption: presynaptic mitochondrial Ca2+ buffering may reduce release probability to be in a region where the information transmitted per energy used is maximized (Figure 3). Similarly, postsynaptic mitochondria, by buffering Ca2+ and reducing AMPA receptor insertion into the membrane (see below), may reduce postsynaptic energy expenditure. Synaptic activity can also decrease mitochondrial activity. Endocannabinoids released by synapses have been suggested to suppress presynaptic mitochondrial respiration (Bénard et al., 2012). This contributes to depolarization-induced suppression BMS-354825 price of inhibition— short-term plasticity in which postsynaptic depolarization reduces presynaptic GABA release. In addition to short term regulation of the ATP output of individual mitochondria, the preferential positioning of mitochondria at pre- and postsynaptic terminals (Chang et al., 2006) is of key importance in the long-term regulation of power to synapses. Presynaptic terminals in neocortex contain between 0.3 and 1.4 mitochondria (Sakata Galunisertib mouse and Jones, 2003), while postsynaptically in cultured hippocampal neurons there is ∼1

mitochondrion per 7 μm of dendrite, which is comparable to the 6 μm separation of synapses (MacAskill et al., 2009). Thus, on either side of most synapses there is ∼1 mitochondrion. Sodium butyrate Mitchondria are formed at the soma. ATP synthesized here would take over 2 min to diffuse to the end of a 200-μm-long dendrite, and ∼10 years to diffuse to the end of a 1-m-long axon, preventing rapid adaptation of the ATP supply in response to changing pre- and postsynaptic activity. Instead, therefore, mitochondria are transported long distances around neurons by kinesin and dynein motors, moving on microtubule tracks at ∼0.3–1 μm/s. This has been reviewed extensively by MacAskill et al. (2010) and Sheng and Cai (2012), who provide more detail on the following points. In the axon, kinesin motors (mainly

KIF5) move mitochondria away from the soma, while dynein mainly moves mitochondria toward the soma, but in dendrites (where the microtubule polarity is mixed) both motors can operate in either direction (Figure 5). More local movements of mitochondria are mediated by myosin V (plus-end directed), VI (minus-end directed), and perhaps XIX motors operating on actin tracks (Ligon and Steward, 2000), and myosin activity also opposes mitochondrial motion along microtubules (Pathak et al., 2010). Since microtubules may not often enter dendritic spines (Conde and Cáceres, 2009), actin-based movement may be needed to make mitochondria protrude into the spines (Li et al., 2004). At any one time a majority (∼80%) of mitochondria are stationary.