Mapping and longitudinal imaging of potentiated synapses in the mouse hippocampus using SynActive-eGRASP

SA-eGRASP selectively labels potentiated CA3-CA1 synapses in mice, enabling longitudinal tracking of individual dendritic spines over several days after contextual fear conditioning.

• Why it matters: Pinpointing which specific synapses undergo long-term potentiation during learning at defined circuits is difficult, limiting direct study of synaptic engrams.
• What they did: The authors engineered SA-eGRASP by targeting the postsynaptic eGRASP half using SynActive driven through Arc 5' and 3' UTRs, then validated it and imaged hippocampal CA3-CA1 synapses with high-resolution microscopy after contextual fear conditioning.
• The result: With high signal-to-noise, they mapped and followed potentiated spines across days and examined how experience selectively potentiates a subset, supporting longitudinal, circuit-specific synapse studies in mice.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.