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Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules pp 5274–5280Cite as

Synapsins (SYN)

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Synonyms

Protein I; Protein III

Historical Background

Synapsins were the first proteins identified in presynaptic terminals: Paul Greengard and colleagues identified protein I (now synapsin I, Kuo and Greengard 1969) as a major neuronal substrate for the cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) in rat brain (Johnson et al. 1972; Ueda et al. 1973). Protein I was also the first identified substrate of the Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (De Camilli et al. 1990), indicating that synapsins serve as a central hub of numerous protein kinase signaling pathways (see below). Early on, it was appreciated that there are multiple synapsins; two isoforms, protein Ia (86 kDa) and Ib (80 kDa), could be distinguished by their molecular weights (Forn and Greengard 1978). We now know that there are even more synapsin isoforms (see Fig. 1). Protein I was found to be enriched in presynaptic terminals and bound to synaptic vesicles within these terminals, causing it to be renamed synapsin I (De...

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Sang-Ho Song & George J. Augustine

  2. Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR, 138673, Singapore, Singapore

    Sang-Ho Song & George J. Augustine

Authors
  1. Sang-Ho Song
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  2. George J. Augustine
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to George J. Augustine .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Ajou University, Suwon, Korea

    Sangdun Choi

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Song, SH., Augustine, G.J. (2018). Synapsins (SYN). In: Choi, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67199-4_101889

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