The spine apparatus (SA) is a specialized form of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) that is found in a subpopulation of dendritic spines in central neurons. It was discovered by E. G. Gray in 1959 when he applied electron microscopy to fixed cortical tissue. The SA consists of a series of stacked discs that are thought to be connected to each other and to the dendritic system of ER-tubules. The actin binding protein synaptopodin (which was originally described in podocytes of the kidney) is an essential component of the SA. Mice that lack the gene for synaptopodin do not form a spine apparatus. The SA is believed to play a critical role in learning and memory, but the exact function of the spine apparatus is still considered relatively enigmatic.
Read more about Spine Apparatus: Morphology, Relevance To Disease
Famous quotes containing the words spine and/or apparatus:
“Much of a man’s character will be found betokened in his backbone. I would rather feel your spine than your skull, whoever you are. A thin joist of a spine never yet upheld a full and noble soul.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Man is the end of nature; nothing so easily organizes itself in every part of the universe as he; no moss, no lichen is so easily born; and he takes along with him and puts out from himself the whole apparatus of society and condition extempore, as an army encamps in a desert, and where all was just now blowing sand, creates a white city in an hour, a government, a market, a place for feasting, for conversation, and for love.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)