1. Neuroscience

Ca2+ sensor synaptotagmin-1 mediates exocytosis in mammalian photoreceptors

  1. Justin J Grassmeyer
  2. Asia L Cahill
  3. Cassandra L Hays
  4. Cody Barta
  5. Rolen M Quadros
  6. Channabasavaiah B Gurumurthy
  7. Wallace B Thoreson  Is a corresponding author
  1. University of Nebraska Medical Center, United States
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45946
Share this article
Cite this article
  1. Justin J Grassmeyer
  2. Asia L Cahill
  3. Cassandra L Hays
  4. Cody Barta
  5. Rolen M Quadros
  6. Channabasavaiah B Gurumurthy
  7. Wallace B Thoreson
(2019)
Ca2+ sensor synaptotagmin-1 mediates exocytosis in mammalian photoreceptors
eLife 8:e45946.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45946
  2. Download BibTeX
  3. Download .RIS

Abstract

To encode light-dependent changes in membrane potential, rod and cone photoreceptors utilize synaptic ribbons to sustain continuous exocytosis while making rapid, fine adjustments to release rate. Release kinetics are shaped by vesicle delivery down ribbons and by properties of exocytotic Ca2+ sensors. We tested the role for synaptotagmin-1 (Syt1) in photoreceptor exocytosis by using novel mouse lines in which Syt1 was conditionally removed from rods or cones. Photoreceptors lacking Syt1 exhibited marked reductions in exocytosis as measured by electroretinography and single-cell recordings. Syt1 mediated all evoked release in cones, whereas rods appeared capable of some slow Syt1-independent release. Spontaneous release frequency was unchanged in cones but increased in rods lacking Syt1. Loss of Syt1 did not alter synaptic anatomy or reduce Ca2+ currents. These results suggest that Syt1 mediates both phasic and tonic release at photoreceptor synapses, revealing unexpected flexibility in the ability of Syt1 to regulate Ca2+-dependent synaptic transmission.

Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. Source data files have been provided for Figure 9.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Justin J Grassmeyer

    Truhlsen Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-9624-9027

  2. Asia L Cahill

    Truhlsen Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Cassandra L Hays

    Truhlsen Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  4. Cody Barta

    Truhlsen Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  5. Rolen M Quadros

    Mouse Genome Engineering Core Facility, Vice Chancellor for Research Office, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9798-9622

  6. Channabasavaiah B Gurumurthy

    Mouse Genome Engineering Core Facility, Vice Chancellor for Research Office, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8022-4033

  7. Wallace B Thoreson

    Truhlsen Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, United States
    For correspondence
    wbthores@unmc.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7104-042X

Funding

National Eye Institute (EY10542)

  • Wallace B Thoreson

Research to Prevent Blindness (Senior Scientific Investigator)

  • Wallace B Thoreson

National Eye Institute (EY28848)

  • Justin J Grassmeyer

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

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All animal care and handling protocols were approved by the University of Nebraska Medical Center Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (protocols 15-027-00 and 15-028-04).

Reviewing Editor

  1. Reinhard Jahn, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany

Publication history

  1. Received: February 9, 2019
  2. Accepted: June 6, 2019
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: June 7, 2019 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: June 21, 2019 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2019, Grassmeyer 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

  • 1,916
    Page views
  • 287
    Downloads
  • 15
    Citations

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

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. Justin J Grassmeyer
  2. Asia L Cahill
  3. Cassandra L Hays
  4. Cody Barta
  5. Rolen M Quadros
  6. Channabasavaiah B Gurumurthy
  7. Wallace B Thoreson
(2019)
Ca2+ sensor synaptotagmin-1 mediates exocytosis in mammalian photoreceptors
eLife 8:e45946.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45946

Categories and tags

Research organism

Further reading

    1. Neuroscience

    Oscillations support short latency co-firing of neurons during human episodic memory formation

    Frédéric Roux, George Parish ... Simon Hanslmayr
    Research Article

    Theta and gamma oscillations in the medial temporal lobe are suggested to play a critical role for human memory formation via establishing synchrony in neural assemblies. Arguably, such synchrony facilitates efficient information transfer between neurons and enhances synaptic plasticity, both of which benefit episodic memory formation. However, to date little evidence exists from humans that would provide direct evidence for such a specific role of theta and gamma oscillations for episodic memory formation. Here we investigate how oscillations shape the temporal structure of neural firing during memory formation in the medial temporal lobe. We measured neural firing and local field potentials in human epilepsy patients via micro-wire electrode recordings to analyze whether brain oscillations are related to co-incidences of firing between neurons during successful and unsuccessful encoding of episodic memories. The results show that phase-coupling of neurons to faster theta and gamma oscillations correlates with co-firing at short latencies (~20-30 ms) and occurs during successful memory formation. Phase-coupling at slower oscillations in these same frequency bands, in contrast, correlates with longer co-firing latencies and occurs during memory failure. Thus, our findings suggest that neural oscillations play a role for the synchronization of neural firing in the medial temporal lobe during the encoding of episodic memories.

    1. Developmental Biology
    2. Neuroscience

    Presynaptic contact and activity opposingly regulate postsynaptic dendrite outgrowth

    Emily L Heckman, Chris Q Doe
    Research Advance

    The organization of neural circuits determines nervous system function. Variability can arise during neural circuit development (e.g. neurite morphology, axon/dendrite position). To ensure robust nervous system function, mechanisms must exist to accommodate variation in neurite positioning during circuit formation. Previously we developed a model system in the Drosophila ventral nerve cord to conditionally induce positional variability of a proprioceptive sensory axon terminal, and used this model to show that when we altered the presynaptic position of the sensory neuron, its major postsynaptic interneuron partner modified its dendritic arbor to match the presynaptic contact, resulting in functional synaptic input (Sales et al., 2019). Here we investigate the cellular mechanisms by which the interneuron dendrites detect and match variation in presynaptic partner location and input strength. We manipulate the presynaptic sensory neuron by (a) ablation; (b) silencing or activation; or (c) altering its location in the neuropil. From these experiments we conclude that there are two opposing mechanisms used to establish functional connectivity in the face of presynaptic variability: presynaptic contact stimulates dendrite outgrowth locally, whereas presynaptic activity inhibits postsynaptic dendrite outgrowth globally. These mechanisms are only active during an early larval critical period for structural plasticity. Collectively, our data provide new insights into dendrite development, identifying mechanisms that allow dendrites to flexibly respond to developmental variability in presynaptic location and input strength.

    1. Epidemiology and Global Health
    2. Neuroscience

    Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms and brain morphology: Examining confounding bias

    Lorenza Dall'Aglio, Hannah H Kim ... Henning Tiemeier
    Research Article Updated

    Background:

    Associations between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and brain morphology have been reported, although with several inconsistencies. These may partly stem from confounding bias, which could distort associations and limit generalizability. We examined how associations between brain morphology and ADHD symptoms change with adjustments for potential confounders typically overlooked in the literature (aim 1), and for the intelligence quotient (IQ) and head motion, which are generally corrected for but play ambiguous roles (aim 2).

    Methods:

    Participants were 10-year-old children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (N = 7722) and Generation R (N = 2531) Studies. Cortical area, volume, and thickness were measured with MRI and ADHD symptoms with the Child Behavior Checklist. Surface-based cross-sectional analyses were run.

    Results:

    ADHD symptoms related to widespread cortical regions when solely adjusting for demographic factors. Additional adjustments for socioeconomic and maternal behavioral confounders (aim 1) generally attenuated associations, as cluster sizes halved and effect sizes substantially reduced. Cluster sizes further changed when including IQ and head motion (aim 2), however, we argue that adjustments might have introduced bias.

    Conclusions:

    Careful confounder selection and control can help identify more robust and specific regions of associations for ADHD symptoms, across two cohorts. We provided guidance to minimizing confounding bias in psychiatric neuroimaging.

    Funding:

    Authors are supported by an NWO-VICI grant (NWO-ZonMW: 016.VICI.170.200 to HT) for HT, LDA, SL, and the Sophia Foundation S18-20, and Erasmus University and Erasmus MC Fellowship for RLM.