Functional roles of electrical synapses formed by neuronal gap junctions

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Gap junctions are aggregates of intercellular communication channels formed by connexin proteins that have essential roles in cells throughout the body. When gap junctions occur between neurons, they create electrical synapses that mediate direct electrical communication between neurons. Nagy’s group and others have revealed both the prevalence and importance of electrical synapses in many regions of mammalian brain and spinal cord. His research program is centered on two long-term objectives: i) deciphering the structural and regulatory protein components of electrical synapses; and ii) gaining knowledge of the functional roles of these synapses in neuronal circuitry. Proposed work on the latter objective aims to provide basic understanding of the occurrence and requirements for electrical synapses in three different neuronal systems each of which govern fundamentally important physiological processes. They hypothesize that electrical synapses confer novel functional properties and contribute essential synchronizing mechanisms that are key to neuronal activity in each of these systems and the functions these systems subserve.