Robert Zucker

Professor (Molecular & Cell Biology)

Email: zucker@berkeley.edu

Research areas: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

Calcium is an essential second messenger in neurons. It couples electrical activity to ion channel regulation and transmitter release, and it may also regulate metabolic processes and gene expression. Our research focuses on how calcium triggers exocytosis at synaptic terminals and modulates synaptic efficacy related to information coding and higher nervous processes like learning. We use electrophysiological methods to record currents through membrane channels; spectrofluorometric detectors to measure intracellular calcium concentrations and vesicle exocytosis and recovery; photodynamic chelators to manipulate quantitatively intracellular calcium and the cellular processes under its control; and mathematical simulations to test models of calcium function. Our research currently asks five questions: (i) What are the identities and characteristics of the molecular targets of presynaptic calcium both in triggering exocytosis and also in modulating transmitter release following prior activity in synaptic facilitation and post-tetanic potentiation? (ii) What regulates the rate of removal of presynaptic calcium from release sites following single or multiple action potentials? (iii) What characteristics of postsynaptic calcium signals are responsible for differentially triggering long-term potentiation and depression in the mammalian cortex? (iv) Are there differences in calcium action at slow peptidergic and at fast cholinergic synapses? (v) What are the dynamics of glutaminergic vesicle recycling and how are they influenced by neuromodulators and regulated by presynaptic ionic channels?

Selected Publications

Tang, Y.-G., T. Schlumpberger, T. Kim, M. Lueker and R. S. Zucker. 2000. Effects of mobile buffers on facilitation: experimental and computational studies Biophys. J. 78: 2735-2751.

Beaumont, V. and R. S. Zucker. 2000. Enhancement of synaptic transmission by cyclic AMP modulation of presynaptic Ih channels Nature Neurosci. 3: 133-141.

Yang, S.-N., Tang, Y.-G., and Zucker, R. S. 1999. Selective induction of LTP and LTD by postsynaptic [Ca2+]i elevation J. Neurophysiology 81: 781–787.

Wang, C. and Zucker, R. S. 1998. Regulation of synaptic vesicle recycling by calcium and serotonin Neuron 21: 155–167.