Rapid recycling of glutamate transporters on the astroglial surface

Glutamate uptake by high-affinity astroglial transporters confines excitatory transmission to the synaptic cleft. The efficiency of this mechanism depends on the transporter dynamics in the astrocyte membrane, which remains poorly understood. Here, we visualise the main glial glutamate transporter GLT1 by generating its functional pH-sensitive fluorescent analogue, GLT1-SEP. Combining FRAP-based methods with molecular dissection shows that 70-75% of GLT1-SEP are expressed on the astroglial surface, recycling with a lifetime of only ~22 s. Genetic deletion of the C-terminus accelerates GLT1-SEP membrane turnover by ~60% while disrupting its molecule-resolution surface pattern as revealed by dSTORM. Excitatory activity boosts surface mobility of GLT1-SEP, involving its C-terminus, metabotropic glutamate receptor activation, intracellular Ca2+ signalling and calcineurin-phosphatase activity, but not the broad-range kinase activity. The results suggest that membrane turnover, rather than than lateral diffusion, is the main redeployment route for the immobile fraction (20-30%) of surface-expressed GLT1. This reveals a novel mechanism by which the brain controls extrasynaptic glutamate escape, in health and disease.