Clathrin coat controls synaptic vesicle acidification by blocking vacuolar ATPase activity

  1. Zohreh Farsi
  2. Sindhuja Gowrisankaran
  3. Matija Krunic
  4. Burkhard Rammner
  5. Andrew Woehler
  6. Eileen M Lafer
  7. Carsten Mim
  8. Reinhard Jahn
  9. Ira Milosevic  Is a corresponding author
  1. Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany
  2. European Neuroscience Institute (ENI), Germany
  3. Sciloop, Germany
  4. Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Germany
  5. University of Texas Health Science Center, United States
  6. Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Sweden

Abstract

Newly-formed synaptic vesicles (SVs) are rapidly acidified by vacuolar adenosine triphosphatases (vATPases), generating a proton electrochemical gradient that drives neurotransmitter loading. Clathrin-mediated endocytosis is needed for the formation of new SVs, yet it is unclear when endocytosed vesicles acidify and refill at the synapse. Here, we isolated clathrin-coated vesicles (CCVs) from mouse brain to measure their acidification directly at the single vesicle level. We observed that the ATP-induced acidification of CCVs was strikingly reduced in comparison to SVs. Remarkably, when the coat was removed from CCVs, uncoated vesicles regained ATP-dependent acidification, demonstrating that CCVs contain the functional vATPase, yet its function is inhibited by the clathrin coat. Considering the known structures of the vATPase and clathrin coat, we propose a model in which the formation of the coat surrounds the vATPase and blocks its activity. Such inhibition is likely fundamental for the proper timing of SV refilling.

Data availability

The structure has been deposited with the EMDB-ID #4335.For additional information considering structure please contact Prof Dr Carsten Mim at carsten.mim@ki.se

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Zohreh Farsi

    Department of Neurobiology, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  2. Sindhuja Gowrisankaran

    Synaptic Vesicle Dynamics Group, European Neuroscience Institute (ENI), Göttingen, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  3. Matija Krunic

    Synaptic Vesicle Dynamics Group, European Neuroscience Institute (ENI), Göttingen, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  4. Burkhard Rammner

    Sciloop, Hamburg, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  5. Andrew Woehler

    Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  6. Eileen M Lafer

    Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  7. Carsten Mim

    Department for Biomedical Engineering and Health Solutions, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Huddinge, Sweden
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  8. Reinhard Jahn

    Department of Neurobiology, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany
    Competing interests
    Reinhard Jahn, Reviewing editor, eLife.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1542-3498
  9. Ira Milosevic

    Synaptic Vesicle Dynamics Group, European Neuroscience Institute (ENI), Göttingen, Germany
    For correspondence
    imilose@gwdg.de
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-6440-3763

Funding

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Emmy Noether Young Investigator Award MI-1702/1)

  • Ira Milosevic

Human Frontier Science Program (Young Investigator Grant RGY0074/16)

  • Carsten Mim

Schram Stiftung (T287/25457)

  • Ira Milosevic

Engelhorn Stiftung (Postdoc fellowship)

  • Zohreh Farsi

Synaptic System PhD fellowship (PhD fellowship)

  • Sindhuja Gowrisankaran

National Institutes of Health (GM118933)

  • Eileen M Lafer

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Margaret S. Robinson, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Ethics

Animal experimentation: Animal experiments were conducted according to the European Guidelines for animal welfare (2010/63/EU) with approval by the Lower Saxony Landesamt fur Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit (LAVES), registration number 14/1701.

Version history

  1. Received: October 6, 2017
  2. Accepted: April 7, 2018
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: April 13, 2018 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: May 4, 2018 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2018, Farsi 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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  1. Zohreh Farsi
  2. Sindhuja Gowrisankaran
  3. Matija Krunic
  4. Burkhard Rammner
  5. Andrew Woehler
  6. Eileen M Lafer
  7. Carsten Mim
  8. Reinhard Jahn
  9. Ira Milosevic
(2018)
Clathrin coat controls synaptic vesicle acidification by blocking vacuolar ATPase activity
eLife 7:e32569.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.32569

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.32569

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