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Updated: Jul 6, 2026

Rapid In Situ Hybridization using Oligonucleotide Probes on Paraformaldehyde-prefixed Brain of Rats with Serotonin Syndrome
Published on: September 23, 2015
Stimulation- and palmitoylation-dependent changes in oligomeric conformation of serotonin 5-HT1A receptors
Fritz Kobe1, Ute Renner, Andrew Woehler
1DFG-Research Center for the Molecular Physiology of the Brain (CMPB), University of Göttingen, Germany.
Abstract:
In the present study we analyzed the oligomerization state of the serotonin 5-HT1A receptor and studied oligomerization dynamics in living cells. We also investigated the role of receptor palmitoylation in this process. Biochemical analysis performed in neuroblastoma N1E-115 cells demonstrated that both palmitoylated and non-palmitoylated 5-HT1A receptors form homo-oligomers and that the prevalent receptor species at the plasma membrane are dimers. A combination of an acceptor-photobleaching FRET approach with fluorescence lifetime measurements verified the interaction of CFP- and YFP-labeled wild-type as well as acylation-deficient 5-HT1A receptors at the plasma membrane of living cells. Using a novel FRET technique based on the spectral analysis we also confirmed the specific nature of receptor oligomerization. The analysis of oligomerization dynamics revealed that apparent FRET efficiency measured for wild-type oligomers significantly decreased in response to agonist stimulation, and our combined results suggest that this decrease was mediated by accumulation of FRET-negative complexes rather than by dissociation of oligomers to monomers. In contrast, the agonist-mediated decrease of FRET signal was completely abolished in oligomers composed by non-palmitoylated receptor mutants, demonstrating the importance of palmitoylation in modulation of the structure of oligomers.
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