Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.04.29.068833v1?rss=1 Authors: Sun, C., Nold, A., Tchumatchenko, T., Heilemann, M., Schuman, E. Abstract: An individual neuron hosts up to 10,000 individual synapses that can be made stronger or weaker by local and cell-wide plasticity mechanisms, both of which require protein synthesis. To address over what spatial scale a neuron allocates synaptic resources, we quantified the distribution of newly synthesized proteins after global homeostatic upscaling using metabolic labeling and single-molecule localization (DNA-PAINT). Following upscaling, we observed a global increase in locally synthesized nascent protein in synapses and at dendrites, with a high degree of variability between individual synapses. We determined the smallest spatial scale over which nascent proteins were evenly distributed and found that it is best described by synaptic neighborhoods (~ 10 microns in length)- smaller than a dendritic branch and larger than an individual synapse. Protein allocation at the level of neighborhoods thus represents a solution to the problem of protein allocation within a neuron that balances local autonomy and global homeostasis. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info