A series of studies in the last few years have demonstrated the importance of miR-132 cluster in neuronal morphogenesis and in regulating synaptic plasticity. In particular, miR-132 has been shown to increase dendritic spine complexity in both immature cortical and hippocampal neurons in part by translational inhibition of p250GAP. As p250GAP is a Rho-Rac family GTPase activating protein, this finding highlights a role for Rho, and also transducers downstream of Rac-GTPases such as PAK, in the effects of miR-132 on activity-dependent neuronal remodeling (Wayman et al., 2008; Hansen et al., 2010; Magill et al., 2010).
