GABAergic synaptic protein dynamics measured by spectroscopic approaches.

The activity dependent adjustment of synaptic strength (synaptic plasticity) involves the reorganization of post-synaptic proteins. The fast diffusion of synaptic proteins has been shown to play an important role in such molecular rearrangements. Taking advantage of single particle tracking (SPT) and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) techniques, it has been demonstrated that during inhibitory long-term potentiation (iLTP) the scaffold protein gephyrin and GABAA receptors are accumulated and immobilized at post-synaptic inhibitory sites.