Topic: Bassoon

Monocular deprivation-induced ocular dominance plasticity (MD-ODP) in the visual cortex is an established in vivo paradigm, in which inactivity-induced synaptic plasticity contributes to the functional reconfiguration of cortical networks. Bassoon (Bsn) is a presynaptic protein involved in the spatial and functional organisation of synaptic vesicle (SV) recycling. Here, we report a novel role for Bsn in the inactivity-induced functional reconfiguration of adult neocortical networks in vivo and in vitro. We subjected Bsn knock-out mice to MD and imaged visual stimulus-evoked intrinsic signals i

The large, homologous proteins Bassoon (Bsn) and Piccolo are part of the cytomatrix at the active zone (AZ) of conventional chemical synapses, where they can partially compensate for each other’s function. At the highly specialized photoreceptor ribbon synapses, Piccolino (Pclo), a C-terminally truncated splice variant of Piccolo, is the functional partner of Bsn. In earlier studies, we detected free-floating photoreceptor synaptic ribbons and disrupted AZs in Bsn single knockout (sKO) mice1 and a loss of the plate‑like ribbon structure, but attached photoreceptor synaptic ribbons, in Pclo sKO