GABA-Independent GABAA Receptor Openings Maintain Tonic Currents

Activation of GABA(A) receptors (GABA(A)Rs) produces two forms of inhibition: ‘phasic’ inhibition generated by the rapid, transient activation of synaptic GABA(A)Rs by presynaptic GABA release, and tonic inhibition generated by the persistent activation of peri- or extrasynaptic GABA(A)Rs which can detect extracellular GABA. Such tonic GABA(A)R-mediated currents are particularly evident in dentate granule cells in which they play a major role in regulating cell excitability. Here we show that in rat dentate granule cells in ex-vivo hippocampal slices, tonic currents are predominantly generated by GABA-independent GABA(A) receptor openings. This tonic GABA(A)R conductance is resistant to the competitive GABA(A)R antagonist SR95531, which at high concentrations acts as a partial agonist, but can be blocked by an open channel blocker picrotoxin. When slices are perfused with 200 nM GABA, a concentration that is comparable to cerebrospinal fluid concentrations but is twice that measured by us in the hippocampus in vivo using zero-net-flux microdialysis, negligible GABA is detected by dentate granule cells. Spontaneously opening GABA(A)Rs, therefore, maintain dentate granule cell tonic currents in the face of low extracellular GABA concentrations

Long-lasting behavioral responses to stress involve a direct interaction of glucocorticoid receptors with ERK1/2–MSK1–Elk-1 signaling

Stressful events are known to have a long-term impact on future behavioral stress responses. Previous studies suggested that both glucocorticoid hormones and glutamate acting via glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) and N-methyl d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, respectively, are of critical importance for the consolidation of these long-lasting behavioral responses at the dentate gyrus, the gateway of the hippocampal formation. We found that an acute psychologically stressful event resulted in ERK1/2 phosphorylation (pERK1/2), which within 15 min led to the activation of the nuclear kinases MSK1 and Elk-1 in granule neurons of the dentate gyrus. Next, MSK1 and Elk-1 activation evoked serine-10 phosphorylation and lysine-14 acetylation in histone H3, resulting in the induction of the neuroplasticity-associated immediate-early genes c-Fos and Egr-1 in these neurons. The pERK1/2-mediated activation of MSK1 and Elk-1 required a rapid protein–protein interaction between pERK1/2 and activated GRs. This is a unique nongenomic mechanism of glucocorticoid hormone action in dentate gyrus granule neurons on long-lasting behavioral responses to stress involving direct cross-talk of GRs with ERK1/2–MSK1–Elk-1 signaling to the nucleus

Relationship between bacterial diversity and function under biotic control: the soil pesticide degraders as a case study

In soil, the way biotic parameters impact the relationship between bacterial diversity and function is still unknown. To understand these interactions better, we used RNA-based stable-isotope probing to study the diversity of active atrazine-degrading bacteria in relation to atrazine degradation and to explore the impact of earthworm-soil engineering with respect to this relationship. Bulk soil, burrow linings and earthworm casts were incubated with 13C-atrazine. The pollutant degradation was quantified by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry for 8 days, whereas active atrazine degraders were identified at 2 and 8 days by sequencing the 16S ribosomal RNA in the 13C-RNA fractions from the three soil microsites. An original diversity of atrazine degraders was found. Earthworm soil engineering greatly modified the taxonomic composition of atrazine degraders with dominance of α-, β- and γ-proteobacteria in burrow linings and of Actinobacteria in casts. Earthworm soil bioturbation increased the γ-diversity of atrazine degraders over the soil microsites generated. Atrazine degradation was enhanced in burrow linings in which primary atrazine degraders, closely related to Pelomonas aquatica, were detected only 2 days after atrazine addition. Atrazine degradation efficiency was not linearly related to the species richness of degraders but likely relied on keystone species. By enhancing soil heterogeneity, earthworms sustained high phylogenetic bacterial diversity and exerted a biotic control on the bacterial diversity–function relationships. Our findings call for future investigations to assess the ecological significance of biotic controls on the relationships between diversity and function on ecosystem properties and services (for example, soil detoxification) at larger scales

The earthworm Aporrectodea caliginosa stimulates abundance and activity of phenoxyalkanoic acid herbicide degraders

2-Methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (MCPA) is a widely used phenoxyalkanoic acid (PAA) herbicide. Earthworms represent the dominant macrofauna and enhance microbial activities in many soils. Thus, the effect of the model earthworm Aporrectodea caliginosa (Oligochaeta, Lumbricidae) on microbial MCPA degradation was assessed in soil columns with agricultural soil. MCPA degradation was quicker in soil with earthworms than without earthworms. Quantitative PCR was inhibition-corrected per nucleic acid extract and indicated that copy numbers of tfdA-like and cadA genes (both encoding oxygenases initiating aerobic PAA degradation) in soil with earthworms were up to three and four times higher than without earthworms, respectively. tfdA-like and 16S rRNA gene transcript copy numbers in soil with earthworms were two and six times higher than without earthworms, respectively. Most probable numbers (MPNs) of MCPA degraders approximated 4 × 105 gdw−1 in soil before incubation and in soil treated without earthworms, whereas MPNs of earthworm-treated soils were approximately 150 × higher. The aerobic capacity of soil to degrade MCPA was higher in earthworm-treated soils than in earthworm-untreated soils. Burrow walls and 0–5 cm depth bulk soil displayed higher capacities to degrade MCPA than did soil from 5–10 cm depth bulk soil, expression of tfdA-like genes in burrow walls was five times higher than in bulk soil and MCPA degraders were abundant in burrow walls (MPNs of 5 × 107 gdw−1). The collective data indicate that earthworms stimulate abundance and activity of MCPA degraders endogenous to soil by their burrowing activities and might thus be advantageous for enhancing PAA degradation in soil