Commentary Cellscience Reviews Vol 5 No 1 ISSN 1742-8130

Just an excitable boy: wiring a male brain with glutamate

A recent study by Schwarz et al. examined the signaling cascades which mediate the effects of estradiol on sexual differentiation in the brain. The authors employed a powerful multi-disciplinary approach to reveal many players, both pre- and post-synaptic, which participate in the rewiring of the brain towards a phenotypically male pattern. Classically for steroid receptor action, amongst the usual suspects are ligand-gated transcription factors which trigger prolonged alterations in gene expression. In contrast to this expectation, the authors revealed the early activation of a kinase, which was followed by enhanced neurotransmitter release. These events were not disrupted by an inhibitor of transcription. The enhanced neurotransmitter release, in turn, had long-lasting effects upon post-synaptic markers of excitatory synapses. Their results showcase the complexity of steroid action in the brain.

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