Neurexin-Neuroligin 1 regulates synaptic morphology and function via the WAVE regulatory complex in Drosophila neuromuscular junction
- Southeast University, China
Abstract
Neuroligins are postsynaptic adhesion molecules that are essential for postsynaptic specialization and synaptic function. But the underlying molecular mechanisms of Neuroligin functions remain unclear. We found that Drosophila Neuroligin1 (DNlg1) regulates synaptic structure and function through WAVE regulatory complex (WRC)-mediated postsynaptic actin reorganization. The disruption of DNlg1, DNlg2, or their presynaptic partner Neurexin (DNrx) led to a dramatic decrease in the amount of F-actin. Further study showed that DNlg1, but not DNlg2 or DNlg3, directly interacts with the WRC via its C-terminal interacting receptor sequence. That interaction is required to recruit WRC to the postsynaptic membrane to promote F-actin assembly. Furthermore, the interaction between DNlg1 and the WRC is essential for DNlg1 to rescue the morphological and electrophysiological defects in dnlg1 knockout mutants. Our results reveal a novel mechanism by which the DNrx-DNlg1 trans-synaptic interaction coordinates structural and functional properties at the neuromuscular junction.
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Funding
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31430035)
- Wei Xie
National Natural Science Foundation of China (311714041)
- Wei Xie
National Basic Research Program (2012CB517903)
- Wei Xie
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31401107)
- Moyi Li
China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2015T80476)
- Moyi Li
China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2014M560369)
- Moyi Li
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CCI117959)
- Zhengping Jia
NSFC-CIHR (81161120543)
- Wei Xie
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2018, Xing et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Neurexin-Neuroligin 1 regulates synaptic morphology and function via the WAVE regulatory complex in Drosophila neuromuscular junction
eLife 7:e30457.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.30457
