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Using expression profiles of Caenorhabditis elegans neurons to identify genes that mediate synaptic connectivity.

ABSTRACT: Synaptic wiring of neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans is largely invariable between animals. It has been suggested that this feature stems from genetically encoded molecular markers that guide the neurons in the final stage of synaptic formation. Identifying these markers and unraveling the logic by which they direct synapse formation is a key challenge. Here, we address this task by constructing a probabilistic model that attempts to explain the neuronal connectivity diagram of C. elegans as a function of the expression patterns of its neurons. By only considering neuron pairs that are known to be connected by chemical or electrical synapses, we focus on the final stage of synapse formation, in which neurons identify their designated partners. Our results show that for many neurons the neuronal expression map of C. elegans can be used to accurately predict the subset of adjacent neurons that will be chosen as its postsynaptic partners. Notably, these predictions can be achieved using the expression patterns of only a small number of specific genes that interact in a combinatorial fashion.

SUBMITTER: Baruch L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2517614 | biostudies-literature | 2008

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Using expression profiles of Caenorhabditis elegans neurons to identify genes that mediate synaptic connectivity.

Baruch Leehod L Itzkovitz Shalev S Golan-Mashiach Michal M Shapiro Ehud E Segal Eran E

PLoS computational biology 20080711 7

Synaptic wiring of neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans is largely invariable between animals. It has been suggested that this feature stems from genetically encoded molecular markers that guide the neurons in the final stage of synaptic formation. Identifying these markers and unraveling the logic by which they direct synapse formation is a key challenge. Here, we address this task by constructing a probabilistic model that attempts to explain the neuronal connectivity diagram of C. elegans as a f ...[more]

PMID: 18711638

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Project description:Synaptic vesicle (SV) recycling enables ongoing transmitter release, even during prolonged activity. SV membrane and proteins are retrieved by ultrafast endocytosis and new SVs are formed from synaptic endosomes (large vesicles-LVs). Many proteins contribute to SV recycling, e.g., endophilin, synaptojanin, dynamin and clathrin, while the site of action of these proteins (at the plasma membrane (PM) vs. at the endosomal membrane) is only partially understood. Here, we investigated the roles of endophilin A (UNC-57), endophilin-related protein (ERP-1, homologous to human endophilin B1) and of clathrin, in SV recycling at the cholinergic neuromuscular junction (NMJ) of C. elegans. erp-1 mutants exhibited reduced transmission and a progressive reduction in optogenetically evoked muscle contraction, indicative of impaired SV recycling. This was confirmed by electrophysiology, where particularly endophilin A (UNC-57), but also endophilin B (ERP-1) mutants exhibited reduced transmission. By optogenetic and electrophysiological analysis, phenotypes in the unc-57; erp-1 double mutant are largely dominated by the unc-57 mutation, arguing for partially redundant functions of endophilins A and B, but also hinting at a back-up mechanism for neuronal endocytosis. By electron microscopy (EM), we observed that unc-57 and erp-1; unc-57 double mutants showed increased numbers of synaptic endosomes of large size, assigning a role for both proteins at the endosome, because endosomal disintegration into new SVs, but not formation of endosomes were hampered. Accordingly, only low amounts of SVs were present. Also erp-1 mutants show reduced SV numbers (but no increase in LVs), thus ERP-1 contributes to SV formation. We analyzed temperature-sensitive mutants of clathrin heavy chain (chc-1), as well as erp-1; chc-1 and unc-57; chc-1 double mutants. SV recycling phenotypes were obvious from optogenetic stimulation experiments. By EM, chc-1 mutants showed formation of numerous and large endosomes, arguing that clathrin, as shown for mammalian synapses, acts at the endosome in formation of new SVs. Without endophilins, clathrin formed endosomes at the PM, while endophilins A and B compensated for the loss of clathrin at the PM, under conditions of high SV turnover.

Dataset Information

Using expression profiles of Caenorhabditis elegans neurons to identify genes that mediate synaptic connectivity.

Publications

Using expression profiles of Caenorhabditis elegans neurons to identify genes that mediate synaptic connectivity.

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