Phosphorylation and Synaptic Plasticity

Professor Tom O'Dell comments that phosphorylation plays a crucial role in synaptic plasticity.

Phosphorylation has a crucial role in synaptic plasticity. Synaptic plasticity, of course, is the ability of different patterns of activity at a synapse to modify the synapse – to make it stronger or weaker. And we now that a key component of that process, the process that makes synapses work better or work not as well, is due to changes in phosphorylation – particularly of the glutamate receptors, the neurotransmitter receptors that detect the chemical signals that are released from the presynaptic cell. Phosphorylation of those proteins changes the strength of synaptic transmission changes.