Regulation of channel activities by glycosylation during acquirement of neural plasticity

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I have proposed a hypothesis that diversity of neural plasticity is regulated by post-translational modification of proteins. I have focused on sialylated glycoproteins in brain and have investigated on sialylation in neural plasticity in vivo and in vitro. We have found that kindling stimulation of mice induced acquirement of structural neural plasticity and the acquirement induced increase of a α2,3-sialyltransferase expressions in the hippocampus and the anterior thalamic nuclei which receive projects from the hippocampus. As the α2,3-sialyltransferase is a key enzyme for sialylation of several channels, we planed to investigate on effects of the enzyme on how channel functions are correlated with changes of structural neural plasticity. First, we prepared conditional knock-out mice against the enzyme gene in this grand. During two years, we finished to make the model mice. At the same time, second, we planed to examine membrane dynamics between rafts and synapses for understanding effects of sialylation on channel functions. During this grand, we determined conditions to separate from raft to synapse membranes and we found different glycan forms on several channels between raft and synapse membranes. This grand gave a chance that I start to investigate membrane dynamics of channels in α2,3-sialyltransferase deficient mouse brain.