PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Tatsuo Suzuki AU - Nobuo Terada AU - Shigeki Higashiyama AU - Kiyokazu Kametani AU - Yoshinori Shirai AU - Mamoru Honda AU - Tsutomu Kai AU - Weidong Li AU - Katsuhiko Tabuchi TI - Non-microtubule tubulin-based backbone and subordinate components of postsynaptic density lattices AID - 10.26508/lsa.202000945 DP - 2021 Jul 01 TA - Life Science Alliance PG - e202000945 VI - 4 IP - 7 4099 - https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/4/7/e202000945.short 4100 - https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/4/7/e202000945.full SO - Life Sci. Alliance2021 Jul 01; 4 AB - A purification protocol was developed to identify and analyze the component proteins of a postsynaptic density (PSD) lattice, a core structure of the PSD of excitatory synapses in the central nervous system. “Enriched”- and “lean”-type PSD lattices were purified by synaptic plasma membrane treatment to identify the protein components by comprehensive shotgun mass spectrometry and group them into minimum essential cytoskeleton (MEC) and non-MEC components. Tubulin was found to be a major component of the MEC, with non-microtubule tubulin widely distributed on the purified PSD lattice. The presence of tubulin in and around PSDs was verified by post-embedding immunogold labeling EM of cerebral cortex. Non-MEC proteins included various typical scaffold/adaptor PSD proteins and other class PSD proteins. Thus, this study provides a new PSD lattice model consisting of non-microtubule tubulin-based backbone and various non-MEC proteins. Our findings suggest that tubulin is a key component constructing the backbone and that the associated components are essential for the versatile functions of the PSD.