Project Details
Projekt
NPY-mediated autophagy and the adaptation of hippocampal circuits to stress
Subject Area
Molecular Biology and Physiology of Neurons and Glial Cells
Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
Term
since 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 447288260
Recent evidence suggests that Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is able to regulate neuronal autophagy both in vertebrates and invertebrates and that this might explain its capacity to modulate long-term cellular changes in neural circuitry. Complementary to RP8 investigating non-cell autonomous metaplastic effects of NPY, we here focus on the role of NPY-induced autophagy in a local circuit relevant for stress adaptation and emotional and cognitive information processing. Thus, in the dentate gyrus (DG)-to-cornu ammonis (CA)3 system we will address mechanisms of behavioral induced autophagy in DG mossy fibers (MF) and their associated local NPY-secreting interneurons. In addition, we will investigate the behavioral consequences of disturbed NPY-induced autophagy in these cells and thus ultimately aim to identify molecular and cellular processes that mediate NPY-induced adaptive changes and stress resilience. Our project intends to bridge a cellular and molecular analysis of autophagy to its involvement in adaptive cognitive and emotional brain function and is thereby interwoven with various other research projects of "Syntophagy".
DFG Programme
Research Units
