Event Abstract

Using neuroinformatics tools to investigate and share high-resolution full volume reconstructions of brain neuropil

  • 1 UT-Austin, United States
  • 2 Charles Univ, Czechia
  • 3 Janelia Farms, United States

Full volume manual reconstructions have been obtained to ascertain the synaptic connectivity and composition of the neuropil surrounding individual hippocampal CA1 dendrites and dendritic spines in mature hippocampus. All objects in two cylindrical volumes were manually reconstructed. These and other test volumes are being used to evaluate the accuracy of automated segmentation algorithms and expand analysis beyond the manual-reconstructions to other dendrites in these neuropils. The resolution of ssTEM provides unambiguous identification of synapses and the subcellular composition of organelles in dendrites, axons, and glia. Thus, full volume high resolution reconstruction provides a powerful tool to determine synaptic circuitry and relate it specifically to alterations in the composition of the local neuropil and small subcellular organelles, such as polyribosomes, vesicles, and glycogen granules, which can serve to identify the local functional status of dendrites, axons, and glia. We also hypothesize that the capacity for synaptic plasticity is dependent on the local availability of core subcellular structures (such as mitochondria (green), vesicles, polyribosomes, mRNA, SER (yellow), Golgi apparatus) that help to build and maintain synapses. Transport along microtubules is required to deliver the core structures. Hence, we used reconstruction from ssTEM to test whether dendritic spine density (#/µm) was correlated with the number of microtubules in a dendritic branch. We are developing a neuroinformatics database of the images and traces comprising these full-volume and subcellular reconstructions to share with broader community, both to develop additional reconstruction and analytical tools, and to model local dendritic and axonal connectivity and function.

Conference: Neuroinformatics 2008, Stockholm, Sweden, 7 Sep - 9 Sep, 2008.

Presentation Type: Oral Presentation

Topic: Workshop

Citation: Harris KM, Shi B, Spacek J, Mendenhall J, Mishchenko Y and Chklovskii D (2008). Using neuroinformatics tools to investigate and share high-resolution full volume reconstructions of brain neuropil. Front. Neuroinform. Conference Abstract: Neuroinformatics 2008. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.11.2008.01.155

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Received: 28 Jul 2008; Published Online: 28 Jul 2008.

* Correspondence: Kristen M Harris, UT-Austin, Austin, United States, nemoABS01@frontiersin.org