Activity dependent regulation of Angiomotin modulates dendritic complexity in hippocampal neurons

Elevated neuronal activity in hippocampal neurons reduces dendritic arbor complexity and lowers AMOT-130 levels, and AMOT-130 overexpression counteracts the morphological effect.

• Why it matters: Activity-dependent changes in synaptic protein composition are linked to maintaining dendritic complexity, but the mechanism by which increased neuronal activity regulates specific scaffolding proteins is unclear.
• What they did: RNAi depletion of AMOT-130 reduces dendritic arbor complexity by DIV9; elevated activity similarly decreases complexity and AMOT-130, while activity promotes ubiquitin-mediated proteasomal degradation of AMOT-130.
• The result: Maintaining sufficient AMOT-130 protein levels is necessary for normal dendritic arborization, implying activity-dependent downregulation via proteasomal degradation drives early developmental dendritic remodeling.