Synonyms
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...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Cheetham JJ, Hilfiker S, Benfenati F, Weber T, Greengard P, Czernik AJ. Identification of synapsin I peptides that insert into lipid membranes. Biochem J. 2001;354:57–66.
Chi P, Greengard P, Ryan TA. Synaptic vesicle mobilization is regulated by distinct synapsin I phosphorylation pathways at different frequencies. Neuron. 2003;38:69–78.
Chin LS, LI L, Ferreira A, Kosik KS, Greengard P. Impairment of axonal development and of synaptogenesis in hippocampal neurons of synapsin I-deficient mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1995;92:9230–4.
Czernik AJ, Pang DT, Greengard P. Amino acid sequences surrounding the cAMP-dependent and calcium/calmodulin-dependent phosphorylation sites in rat and bovine synapsin I. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1987;84:7518–22.
De Camilli P, Cameron R, Greengard P. Synapsin I (protein I), a nerve terminal-specific phosphoprotein. I. Its general distribution in synapses of the central and peripheral nervous system demonstrated by immunofluorescence in frozen and plastic sections. J Cell Biol. 1983;96:1337–54.
De Camilli P, Benfenati F, Valtorta F, Greengard P. The synapsins. Annu Rev Cell Biol. 1990;6:433–60.
Feng J, Chi P, Blanpied TA, Xu Y, Magarinos AM, Ferreira A, Takahashi RH, Kao HT, Mcewen BS, Ryan TA, Augustine GJ, Greengard P. Regulation of neurotransmitter release by synapsin III. J Neurosci. 2002;22:4372–80.
Ferreira A, Li L, Chin LS, Greengard P, Kosik KS. Postsynaptic element contributes to the delay in synaptogenesis in synapsin I-deficient neurons. Mol Cell Neurosci. 1996;8:286–99.
Ferreira A, Chin LS, Li L, Lanier LM, Kosik KS, Greengard P. Distinct roles of synapsin I and synapsin II during neuronal development. Mol Med. 1998;4:22–8.
Forn J, Greengard P. Depolarizing agents and cyclic nucleotides regulate the phosphorylation of specific neuronal proteins in rat cerebral cortex slices. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1978;75:5195–9.
Gitler D, Xu Y, Kao HT, Lin D, Lim S, Feng J, Greengard P, Augustine GJ. Molecular determinants of synapsin targeting to presynaptic terminals. J Neurosci. 2004a;24:3711–20.
Gitler D, Takagishi Y, Feng J, Ren Y, Rodriguiz RM, Wetsel WC, Greengard P, Augustine GJ. Different presynaptic roles of synapsins at excitatory and inhibitory synapses. J Neurosci. 2004b;24:11368–80.
Gitler D, Cheng Q, Greengard P, Augustine GJ. Synapsin IIa controls the reserve pool of glutamatergic synaptic vesicles. J Neurosci. 2008;28:10835–43.
Hilfiker S, Schweizer FE, Kao HT, Czernik AJ, Greengard P, Augustine GJ. Two sites of action for synapsin domain E in regulating neurotransmitter release. Nat Neurosci. 1998;1:29–35.
Hilfiker S, Benfenati F, Doussau F, Nairn AC, Czernik AJ, Augustine GJ, Greengard P. Structural domains involved in the regulation of transmitter release by synapsins. J Neurosci. 2005;25:2658–69.
Hosaka M, Sudhof TC. Homo- and heterodimerization of synapsins. J Biol Chem. 1999;274:16747–53.
Johnson EM, Ueda T, Maeno H, Greengard P. Adenosine 3′, 5-monophosphate-dependent phosphorylation of a specific protein in synaptic membrane fractions from rat cerebrum. J Biol Chem. 1972;247:5650–2.
Kao HT, Porton B, Czernik AJ, Feng J, Yiu G, Haring M, Benfenati F, Greengard P. A third member of the synapsin gene family. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1998;95:4667–72.
Kile BM, Guillot TS, Venton BJ, Wetsel WC, Augustine GJ, Wightman RM. Synapsins differentially control dopamine and serotonin release. J Neurosci. 2010;30:9762–70.
Kuo JF, Greengard P. Cyclic nucleotide-dependent protein kinases. IV. Widespread occurrence of adenosine 3′ ,5′ -monophosphate-dependent protein kinase in various tissues and phyla of the animal kingdom. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1969;64:1349–55.
Li L, Chin LS, Greengard P, Copeland NG, Gilbert DJ, Jenkins NA. Localization of the synapsin II (SYN2) gene to human chromosome 3 and mouse chromosome 6. Genomics. 1995;28:365–6.
Pieribone VA, Shupliakov O, Brodin L, Hilfiker-Rothenfluh S, Czernik AJ, Greengard P. Distinct pools of synaptic vesicles in neurotransmitter release. Nature. 1995;375:493–7.
Porton B, Ferreira A, Delisi LE, Kao HT. A rare polymorphism affects a mitogen-activated protein kinase site in synapsin III: possible relationship to schizophrenia. Biol Psychiatry. 2004;55:118–25.
Rosahl TW, Spillane D, Missler M, Herz J, Selig DK, Wolff JR, Hammer RE, Malenka RC, Sudhof TC. Essential functions of synapsins I and II in synaptic vesicle regulation. Nature. 1995;375:488–93.
Song SH, Augustine GJ. Synapsin isoforms regulating GABA release from hippocampal interneurons. J Neurosci. 2016;36:6742–57.
Sudhof TC, Czernik AJ, Kao HT, Takei K, Johnston PA, Horiuchi A, Kanazir SD, Wagner MA, Perin MS, De Camilli P, et al. Synapsins: mosaics of shared and individual domains in a family of synaptic vesicle phosphoproteins. Science. 1989;245:1474–80.
Ueda T, Maeno H, Greengard P. Regulation of endogenous phosphorylation of specific proteins in synaptic membrane fractions from rat brain by adenosine 3′:5′ -monophosphate. J Biol Chem. 1973;248:8295–305.
Venton BJ, Seipel AT, Phillips PE, Wetsel WC, Gitler D, Greengard P, Augustine GJ, Wightman RM. Cocaine increases dopamine release by mobilization of a synapsin-dependent reserve pool. J Neurosci. 2006;26:3206–9.
Villanueva M, Thornley K, Augustine GJ, Wightman RM. Synapsin II negatively regulates catecholamine release. Brain Cell Biol. 2006;35:125–36.
Yang-Feng TL, Degennaro LJ, Francke U. Genes for synapsin I, a neuronal phosphoprotein, map to conserved regions of human and murine X chromosomes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986;83:8679–83.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
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
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67199-4_101889
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-67198-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-67199-4
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences