1. Neuroscience

TRPC3 is a major contributor to functional heterogeneity of cerebellar Purkinje cells

  1. Bin Wu
  2. François G C Blot
  3. Aaron Benson Wong
  4. Catarina Osório
  5. Youri Adolfs
  6. R Jeroen Pasterkamp
  7. Jana Hartmann
  8. Esther B E Becker
  9. Henk-Jan Boele
  10. Chris I De Zeeuw
  11. Martijn Schonewille  Is a corresponding author
  1. Erasmus Medical Center, Netherlands
  2. University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands
  3. Technische Universität München, Germany
  4. University of Oxford, United Kingdom
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45590
Share this article
Cite this article
  1. Bin Wu
  2. François G C Blot
  3. Aaron Benson Wong
  4. Catarina Osório
  5. Youri Adolfs
  6. R Jeroen Pasterkamp
  7. Jana Hartmann
  8. Esther B E Becker
  9. Henk-Jan Boele
  10. Chris I De Zeeuw
  11. Martijn Schonewille
(2019)
TRPC3 is a major contributor to functional heterogeneity of cerebellar Purkinje cells
eLife 8:e45590.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45590
  2. Download BibTeX
  3. Download .RIS

Abstract

Despite the canonical homogeneous character of its organization, the cerebellum plays differential computational roles in distinct sensorimotor behaviors. Previously we showed that Purkinje cell activity differs between zebrin-negative (Z-) and zebrin-positive (Z+) modules (Zhou et al., 2014). Here, using gain-of-function and loss-of-function mouse models, we show that transient receptor potential cation channel C3 (TRPC3) controls the simple spike activity of Z-, but not Z+ Purkinje cells. In addition, TRPC3 regulates complex spike rate and their interaction with simple spikes, exclusively in Z- Purkinje cells. At the behavioral level, TRPC3 loss-of-function mice show impaired eyeblink conditioning, which is related to Z- modules, whereas compensatory eye movement adaptation, linked to Z+ modules, is intact. Together, our results indicate that TRPC3 is a major contributor to the cellular heterogeneity that introduces distinct physiological properties in Purkinje cells, conjuring functional heterogeneity in cerebellar sensorimotor integration.

Data availability

All electrophysiology and behavioral data are included in the manuscript and supporting files. Source data files have been provided for Figures 2 to 7 and Figures S4 to S8.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Bin Wu

    Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4198-1661

  2. François G C Blot

    Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Aaron Benson Wong

    Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1650-2710

  4. Catarina Osório

    Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  5. Youri Adolfs

    Department of Translational Neuroscience, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  6. R Jeroen Pasterkamp

    Department of Translational Neuroscience, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1631-6440

  7. Jana Hartmann

    Institute of Neuroscience, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  8. Esther B E Becker

    Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5238-4902

  9. Henk-Jan Boele

    Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  10. Chris I De Zeeuw

    Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5628-8187

  11. Martijn Schonewille

    Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands
    For correspondence
    m.schonewille@erasmusmc.nl
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2675-1393

Funding

European Commission (ERC-Stg #680235)

  • Martijn Schonewille

China Scholarship Council (#201306230130)

  • Bin Wu

Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (ALW / Zon-Mw)

  • Chris I De Zeeuw

European Commission (ERC-Adv)

  • Chris I De Zeeuw

European Commission (ERC-POC)

  • Chris I De Zeeuw

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

Ethics

Animal experimentation: This study was performed under and all of the animals were handled according to a project license approved by the Dutch Central Committee for Animal Experiments (CCD, AVD #101002015273). Each experiment was separately verified and approved by the Animal Welfare Body (IvD/AWB, various numbers). All surgery was performed under isoflurane anesthesia combined with local anesthetics and analgesics in an effort to minimize suffering.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Jennifer L Raymond, Stanford School of Medicine, United States

Publication history

  1. Received: February 8, 2019
  2. Accepted: August 18, 2019
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: September 5, 2019 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: September 9, 2019 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2019, Wu 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.

Metrics

  • 2,268
    Page views
  • 340
    Downloads
  • 19
    Citations

Article citation count generated by polling the highest count across the following sources: Crossref, Scopus, PubMed Central.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Bin Wu
  2. François G C Blot
  3. Aaron Benson Wong
  4. Catarina Osório
  5. Youri Adolfs
  6. R Jeroen Pasterkamp
  7. Jana Hartmann
  8. Esther B E Becker
  9. Henk-Jan Boele
  10. Chris I De Zeeuw
  11. Martijn Schonewille
(2019)
TRPC3 is a major contributor to functional heterogeneity of cerebellar Purkinje cells
eLife 8:e45590.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45590

Categories and tags

Research organism

    1. Builds upon

    Cerebellar modules operate at different frequencies

    Haibo Zhou et al.
  2. Further reading

Further reading

    1. Neuroscience

    Cerebellar modules operate at different frequencies

    Haibo Zhou et al.
    Research Article Updated

    Due to the uniform cyto-architecture of the cerebellar cortex, its overall physiological characteristics have traditionally been considered to be homogeneous. In this study, we show in awake mice at rest that spiking activity of Purkinje cells, the sole output cells of the cerebellar cortex, differs between cerebellar modules and correlates with their expression of the glycolytic enzyme aldolase C or zebrin. Simple spike and complex spike frequencies were significantly higher in Purkinje cells located in zebrin-negative than zebrin-positive modules. The difference in simple spike frequency persisted when the synaptic input to, but not intrinsic activity of, Purkinje cells was manipulated. Blocking TRPC3, the effector channel of a cascade of proteins that have zebrin-like distribution patterns, attenuated the simple spike frequency difference. Our results indicate that zebrin-discriminated cerebellar modules operate at different frequencies, which depend on activation of TRPC3, and that this property is relevant for all cerebellar functions.

    1. Neuroscience
    2. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

    Generation of vascularized brain organoids to study neurovascular interactions

    Xin-Yao Sun et al.
    Research Article Updated

    Brain organoids have been used to recapitulate the processes of brain development and related diseases. However, the lack of vasculatures, which regulate neurogenesis and brain disorders, limits the utility of brain organoids. In this study, we induced vessel and brain organoids, respectively, and then fused two types of organoids together to obtain vascularized brain organoids. The fused brain organoids were engrafted with robust vascular network-like structures and exhibited increased number of neural progenitors, in line with the possibility that vessels regulate neural development. Fusion organoids also contained functional blood–brain barrier-like structures, as well as microglial cells, a specific population of immune cells in the brain. The incorporated microglia responded actively to immune stimuli to the fused brain organoids and showed ability of engulfing synapses. Thus, the fusion organoids established in this study allow modeling interactions between the neuronal and non-neuronal components in vitro, particularly the vasculature and microglia niche.

    1. Neuroscience
    2. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

    Brain Organoids: Getting the right cells

    Bilal Cakir, In-Hyun Park
    Insight

    Fusing brain organoids with blood vessel organoids leads to the incorporation of non-neural endothelial cells and microglia into the brain organoids.