Neurexophilin4 is a selectively expressed α-neurexin ligand that modulates specific cerebellar synapses and motor functions

Abstract

Neurexophilins are secreted neuropeptide-like glycoproteins, and neurexophilin1 and neurexophilin3 are ligands for the presynaptic cell adhesion molecule α-neurexin. Neurexophilins are more selectively expressed in the brain than α-neurexins, however, which led us to ask whether neurexophilins modulate the function of α-neurexin in a context-specific manner. We characterized the expression and function of neurexophilin4 in mice and found it to be expressed in subsets of neurons responsible for feeding, emotion, balance, and movement. Deletion of Neurexophilin4 caused corresponding impairments, most notably in motor learning and coordination. We demonstrated that neurexophilin4 interacts with α-neurexin and GABAARs in the cerebellum. Loss of Neurexophilin4 impaired cerebellar Golgi-granule inhibitory neurotransmission and synapse number, providing a partial explanation for the motor learning and coordination deficits observed in the Neurexophilin4 null mice. Our data illustrate how selectively expressed Neurexophilin4, an α-neurexin ligand, regulates specific synapse function and modulates cerebellar motor control.

Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. Custom-written Matlab-based programs used to operate the recording system and perform online and offline analysis of the electrophysiology data have been made available at https://github.com/haozhaozhe/PatchClamp-ShowConnection.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Xiangling Meng

    Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  2. Christopher M McGraw

    Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  3. Wei Wang

    Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  4. Junzhan Jing

    Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  5. Szu-Ying Yeh

    Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4506-5652
  6. Li Wang

    Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  7. Joanna Lopez

    Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  8. Amanda M Brown

    Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  9. Tao Lin

    Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  10. Wu Chen

    Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  11. Mingshan Xue

    Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1463-8884
  12. Roy V Sillitoe

    Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-6177-6190
  13. Xialong Jiang

    Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  14. Huda Y Zoghbi

    Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, United States
    For correspondence
    hzoghbi@bcm.edu
    Competing interests
    Huda Y Zoghbi, Senior editor, eLife.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-0700-3349

Funding

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (5R01NS057819)

  • Huda Y Zoghbi

Autism Speaks (9120)

  • Li Wang

NIH Office of the Director (R01NS100893)

  • Mingshan Xue

NIH Office of the Director (R01MH117089)

  • Mingshan Xue

Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (NARSAD Young Investigator Award)

  • Mingshan Xue

NIH Office of the Director (F31NS101891)

  • Amanda M Brown

American Epilepsy Society (Predoctal fellowship)

  • Wu Chen

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

Ethics

Animal experimentation: Mice were housed in an AAALAS-certified animal facility. All procedures to maintain and use these mice were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use committee for Baylor College of Medicine. Animal protocol number AN-1013.

Copyright

© 2019, Meng 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. Xiangling Meng
  2. Christopher M McGraw
  3. Wei Wang
  4. Junzhan Jing
  5. Szu-Ying Yeh
  6. Li Wang
  7. Joanna Lopez
  8. Amanda M Brown
  9. Tao Lin
  10. Wu Chen
  11. Mingshan Xue
  12. Roy V Sillitoe
  13. Xialong Jiang
  14. Huda Y Zoghbi
(2019)
Neurexophilin4 is a selectively expressed α-neurexin ligand that modulates specific cerebellar synapses and motor functions
eLife 8:e46773.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.46773

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https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.46773