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Università degli Studi di Verona
PhD SCHOOL OF SCIENCE ENGINEERING MEDICINE
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37134 Verona - Italia
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The functional organization of neuromuscular junctions:
Pushing chemical communication to its limits?
Lectio Magistralis
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
h 15.00
Aula “A” - Istituti Biologici
Prof. Clarke R. Slater
Institute of Neuroscience,
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Abstract
The neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is the synapse between the motor nerve cells and the muscle fibres. Not only is
this structure of fundamental importance for our movements but it also represents a classic model synapse in which
basic properties of the communications between nerve cells are investigated. In particular it is a model of chemical
communication (as opposed to electrical) where particular molecules, the neurotransmitters, mediate the signal
transmission between nerve cells and their partners, be they other nerve cells or muscle fibres. At the NMJ the
neurotransmitter released by the pre-synaptic motor neuron, acetylcholine (ACh), interacts with its receptors
(AChRs) located on the post-synaptic muscle fibre, to operate the transmission of the nerve impulse (action
potential) from the motor neuron to the muscle fibre, where it finally evokes the contraction.
One of the many interesting questions to be asked about cells is how nearly their performance reaches the limits
that are posed by the physicochemical properties of the molecules of which they are made. The lecture will consider
this very general question in the context of the model synapse represented by the NMJ. The talk will begin by
summarizing what NMJs do and how they do it. It will then go on to consider in more detail the spatial organization of
the cellular machinery responsible for release of transmitter from the nerve terminal and for mediating the response
of the muscle fibre to the transmitter. Finally, the lecture will show how the spatial aspects of NMJ organization and
the speed of neuromuscular transmission appear to be matched to the rates of diffusion and binding of the small
molecule ACh that mediates chemical transmission.
Clarke Rothwell SLATER
Clarke SLATER was born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA in
1940. In 1962 he graduated in Biology at the Harvard
College. From 1962 to 1965 he was a Marshall Scholar at
the Dept. of Biophysics of University College, London, with
Bernard Katz and Ricardo Miledi. There he obtained the
Ph.D. degree working on the dependence of structure and
function of the NMJ on the motor nerve cell. In 1966-1974
he had postdoctoral appointments at NIH, Washington, the
Neurobiology Dept. of Harvard Medical School, Boston, the
MRC in Cambridge, England. In 1974-1975 he was a
Visiting Fellow of the Norwegian Research Council at the
Neurophysiology Institute of Oslo University, where he
investigated the role of activity in the development of the
NMJ with Terje Lomo. In 1981-1982 he was Visiting Associate Professor at the Neurobiology Dept.
of Stanford University Medical School; recipient of Senior Investigator Award, Muscular Dystrophy
Association (USA). There he collaborated with Jack McMahan on the role of the basal lamina at the
NMJs of regenerating muscles. After 1975 he held research and faculty positions at the University
of Newcastle upon Tyne Medical School, UK, always investigating the NMJ in health and disease,
such as myasthenia and muscular dystrophy. There he is Professor of Neuroscience since 2000,
presently Emeritus.
_______________________________________________________________________________
For further information please contact Prof. Alberto Cangiano
Tel. 045/8027150
e-mail: [email protected]