Probabilistic encoding of stimulus strength in astrocyte global calcium signals
Astrocyte calcium signals can range in size from subcellular microdomains to waves that spread through the whole cell (and into connected cells). The differential roles of such local or global calcium signaling are under intense investigation, but the mechanisms by which local signals evolve into gl...
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Wiley
2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37847/ |
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| author | Croft, Wayne Reusch, Katharina Tilunaite, Agne Russell, Noah A. Thul, Rüdiger Bellamy, Tomas C. |
| author_facet | Croft, Wayne Reusch, Katharina Tilunaite, Agne Russell, Noah A. Thul, Rüdiger Bellamy, Tomas C. |
| author_sort | Croft, Wayne |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Astrocyte calcium signals can range in size from subcellular microdomains to waves that spread through the whole cell (and into connected cells). The differential roles of such local or global calcium signaling are under intense investigation, but the mechanisms by which local signals evolve into global signals in astrocytes are not well understood, nor are the computational rules by which physiological stimuli are transduced into a global signal. To investigate these questions, we transiently applied receptor agonists linked to calcium signaling to primary cultures of cerebellar astrocytes. Astrocytes repetitively tested with the same stimulus responded with global signals intermittently, indicating that each stimulus had a defined probability for triggering a response. The response probability varied between agonists, increased with agonist concentration, and could be positively and negatively modulated by crosstalk with other signaling pathways. To better understand the processes determining the evolution of a global signal, we recorded subcellular calcium “puffs” throughout the whole cell during stimulation. The key requirement for puffs to trigger a global calcium wave following receptor activation appeared to be the synchronous release of calcium from three or more sites, rather than an increasing calcium load accumulating in the cytosol due to increased puff size, amplitude, or frequency. These results suggest that the concentration of transient stimuli will be encoded into a probability of generating a global calcium response, determined by the likelihood of synchronous release from multiple subcellular sites. |
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| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-37847 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:33:48Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| recordtype | eprints |
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| spelling | nottingham-378472020-05-04T17:44:20Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37847/ Probabilistic encoding of stimulus strength in astrocyte global calcium signals Croft, Wayne Reusch, Katharina Tilunaite, Agne Russell, Noah A. Thul, Rüdiger Bellamy, Tomas C. Astrocyte calcium signals can range in size from subcellular microdomains to waves that spread through the whole cell (and into connected cells). The differential roles of such local or global calcium signaling are under intense investigation, but the mechanisms by which local signals evolve into global signals in astrocytes are not well understood, nor are the computational rules by which physiological stimuli are transduced into a global signal. To investigate these questions, we transiently applied receptor agonists linked to calcium signaling to primary cultures of cerebellar astrocytes. Astrocytes repetitively tested with the same stimulus responded with global signals intermittently, indicating that each stimulus had a defined probability for triggering a response. The response probability varied between agonists, increased with agonist concentration, and could be positively and negatively modulated by crosstalk with other signaling pathways. To better understand the processes determining the evolution of a global signal, we recorded subcellular calcium “puffs” throughout the whole cell during stimulation. The key requirement for puffs to trigger a global calcium wave following receptor activation appeared to be the synchronous release of calcium from three or more sites, rather than an increasing calcium load accumulating in the cytosol due to increased puff size, amplitude, or frequency. These results suggest that the concentration of transient stimuli will be encoded into a probability of generating a global calcium response, determined by the likelihood of synchronous release from multiple subcellular sites. Wiley 2016-04-30 Article PeerReviewed Croft, Wayne, Reusch, Katharina, Tilunaite, Agne, Russell, Noah A., Thul, Rüdiger and Bellamy, Tomas C. (2016) Probabilistic encoding of stimulus strength in astrocyte global calcium signals. Glia, 64 (4). pp. 537-552. ISSN 1098-1136 Astrocyte; Calcium puffs; Crosstalk; ATP; Glutamate http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/glia.22947 doi:10.1002/glia.22947 doi:10.1002/glia.22947 |
| spellingShingle | Astrocyte; Calcium puffs; Crosstalk; ATP; Glutamate Croft, Wayne Reusch, Katharina Tilunaite, Agne Russell, Noah A. Thul, Rüdiger Bellamy, Tomas C. Probabilistic encoding of stimulus strength in astrocyte global calcium signals |
| title | Probabilistic encoding of stimulus strength in astrocyte global calcium signals |
| title_full | Probabilistic encoding of stimulus strength in astrocyte global calcium signals |
| title_fullStr | Probabilistic encoding of stimulus strength in astrocyte global calcium signals |
| title_full_unstemmed | Probabilistic encoding of stimulus strength in astrocyte global calcium signals |
| title_short | Probabilistic encoding of stimulus strength in astrocyte global calcium signals |
| title_sort | probabilistic encoding of stimulus strength in astrocyte global calcium signals |
| topic | Astrocyte; Calcium puffs; Crosstalk; ATP; Glutamate |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37847/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37847/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37847/ |