% percent
° degree
°C degree Celsius
µg microgram
µl microliter
ANOVA analysis of variance
AMPAR α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor AOS accessory optic system
BDNF brain-derived neurotropic factor
Bsn Bassoon
C/contra contralateral
CAZ cytomatrix at the active zone CCD charged-coupled- device
cd candela
cm centimeter
CNS central nervous system
Cy2 cyanine dye 2
Cy3 cyanine dye 3
cyc/deg cycles/degree
d day
DAPI 4′,6-Diamidin-2-phenylindole DLG4 disks large homolog gene 4 DNA deoxyribonucleic acid
DZ diazepam
e.g. exempli gratia
EEG electroencephalographic recording ELISA enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
154
GABAAR γ-amino butter acid A receptor
GK guanylate kinase
155
PDZ postsynaptic density protein, disc large tumor suppressor, zonula occludens-1 protein
PFA paraformaldehyde
PKA cAMP-dependent protein kinase A
PNN perineuronal net
PSD postsynaptic density
PSD-95 postsynaptic density protein of 95 kDa
PV parvalbumin
PV+ parvalbumin positive
s.e.m. standard error of mean
SAP-90 synapse associated protein of 90 kDa
sec second
SH3 Src-homology-3
std standard deviation
SV synaptic vesicles
TNFα tumor necrosis factor-alpha
156 tPA tissue plasminogen activator
V1 primary visual cortex
VPA valproic acid
vwt visual water task
WT wild-type
αCaMKII α-calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II
157
Acknowledgements
Though only my name appears on the cover of this dissertation, a great many people have contributed to this most scientific challenging to this date. I owe my gratitude to all the people who made this possible.
My deepest gratitude is to my mentor Prof Dr. Siegrid Löwel for the opportunity to study in her lab and for her great supervision.
I am grateful to Prof. Dr. Tobias Moser and Dr. Oliver Schlüter for being part of my thesis committee and their insightful and constructive comments.
It is with immense gratitude that I acknowledge the support of our cooperation partners Dr. Oliver Schlüter who gave me the opportunity to study PSD-95 mutant mice as well as Prof. Dr. Eckart Gundelfinger who gave me the chance to study Bassoon mutant mice.
I am indebted to Prof. Dr. Karl-Friedrich Schmidt for his imperturbable calm during all these years. Thank you for your help with MD and the optomotor setup and for your shoulder to cry on.
I would like to thank my former and current lab members for the nice teamwork and especially Konrad Lehmann, Katja Krempler, Naira Yeritsyan, Verena Orth, and Colin Wenzel for help with some of the experiments.
Most importantly, none of this would have been possible without the immense love, support, and patience of my parents, grandparents, my companion David Bogusch and my whole family. Thank you with all my heart.
I also warmly appreciate the love and support of my friends and flat mates.
Finally, I appreciate the financial support from the HFSP, the DFG, and the BMBF/Bernstein Focus BFNL, BFNT that funded parts of the research discussed in this dissertation.
158
Curriculum Vitae
Personal Information Date of Birth 11th October, 1981; Lichtenstein/Germany Nationality Office Address Systems Neuroscience (Prof. Dr. Siegrid Löwel)
Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology (BFNT) and
09/2010 – present PhD student at the Göttingen Graduate School for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences (GGNB)
Research Group Prof. Dr. Siegrid Löwel, Systems Neuroscience, Bernstein Fokus Neurotechnologie (BFNT) and Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institut für Zoologie und Anthropologie, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen/Germany Research Topic: “Vision, cortical maps and neuronal plasticity in Bassoon and PSD-95 mutant mice.”
04/2009 – 08/2010 PhD student in Neurobiology
Research Group Prof. Dr. Siegrid Löwel, Institut für Allgemeine Zoologie und Tierphysiologie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena/Germany
Research Topic: “Cortical plasticity and sensory learning in juvenile and adult Bassoon mutant mice.”
11/2006 – 04/2009 Diploma thesis, grade 1.7
Research Group Prof. Dr. Siegrid Löwel, Institut für Allgemeine Zoologie und Tierphysiologie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena/Germany
Research Topic: „Vision and visual cortical maps in mice with a photoreceptor synaptopathy: reduced but robust visual capabilities in the absence of synaptic ribbons.”
06/2002 – 04/2009 Diploma in Biology (Dipl.-Biol.) at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena/Germany, final grade: 1.2
Major: General Biology and Animal Physiology, Minors: Neurobiology, Genetics
159 Awards, stipends and selections
07/14/2012 – 07/18/2012 Scholarship by German Neuroscience Society for the 8th Forum of European Neuroscience – in Barcelona/Spain
06/05/2011 – 06/11/2011 Awards for most active student as well as best poster and selected as one of 30 PhD students worldwide at the Development and Plasticity of Cortical Representation – FENS-IBRO Summer School – in Bertinoro/Italy; poster presentation and talk
04/18/2010 – 05/15/2010 Scholarship by ProChance 2010 – Programm zur Förderung der Chancengleichheit von Frau und Mann in der Wissenschaft of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena/Germany as a visiting researcher at the Laboratory of Neuroanatomy of the Santa Lucia Foundation at the European Center for Brain Research in Rome/Italy in the lab of Dr.
Francesca R. Fusco; Learning of new techniques: brain slicing via microtome, immunofluorescence staining, DAB staining, laser scanning microscopy
05/18/2009 – 05/19/2009 Scholarship by ProChance 2009 – Programm zur Förderung der Chancengleichheit von Frau und Mann in der Wissenschaft of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena/Germany for the Organization and Plasticity of the Visual Cortex – Visual Cortex Meeting 2009 of The EuroV1sion Consortium – in Pisa/Italy
09/18/2007 – 09/23/2007 Selected as one of 25 PhD students worldwide for the 5th Fall Course on Computational Neuroscience – BCCN – in Göttingen/Germany; own talk
Publications in peer-reviewed journals
Goetze, B., Schmidt, K.F., Lehmann, K., Altrock, W.D., Gundelfinger, E.D., and Löwel, S. (2010). Vision and visual cortical maps in mice with a photoreceptor synaptopathy: reduced but robust visual capabilities in the absence of synaptic ribbons. Neuroimage 49: 1622–1631.