Paradoxical network excitation by glutamate release from VGluT3+ GABAergic interneurons

  1. Kenneth A Pelkey  Is a corresponding author
  2. Daniela Calvigioni
  3. Calvin Fang
  4. Geoffrey Vargish
  5. Tyler Ekins
  6. Kurt Auville
  7. Jason C Wester
  8. Mandy Lai
  9. Connie Mackenzie-Gray Scott
  10. Xiaoqing Yuan
  11. Steven Hunt
  12. Daniel Abebe
  13. Qing Xu
  14. Jordane Dimidschstein
  15. Gordon Fishell
  16. Ramesh Chittajallu
  17. Chris J McBain  Is a corresponding author
  1. NICHD/NIH, United States
  2. New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
  3. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, United States
  4. Harvard Medical School, United States

Abstract

In violation of Dale's principle several neuronal subtypes utilize more than one classical neurotransmitter. Molecular identification of vesicular glutamate transporter 3 and cholecystokinin expressing cortical interneurons (CCK+VGluT3+INTs) has prompted speculation of GABA/glutamate corelease from these cells for almost two decades despite a lack of direct evidence. We unequivocally demonstrate CCK+VGluT3+INT mediated GABA/glutamate cotransmission onto principal cells in adult mice using paired recording and optogenetic approaches. Although under normal conditions, GABAergic inhibition dominates CCK+VGluT3+INT signaling, glutamatergic signaling becomes predominant when glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) function is compromised. CCK+VGluT3+INTs exhibit surprising anatomical diversity comprising subsets of all known dendrite targeting CCK+ interneurons in addition to the expected basket cells, and their extensive circuit innervation profoundly dampens circuit excitability under normal conditions. However, in contexts where the glutamatergic phenotype of CCK+VGluT3+INTs is amplified, they promote paradoxical network hyperexcitability which may be relevant to disorders involving GAD dysfunction such as schizophrenia or vitamin B6 deficiency.

Data availability

All data analyzed in this study are included in the manuscript/supporting files.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Kenneth A Pelkey

    Section on Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, NICHD/NIH, Bethesda, United States
    For correspondence
    pelkeyk2@mail.nih.gov
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9731-1336
  2. Daniela Calvigioni

    Section on Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, NICHD/NIH, Bethesda, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Calvin Fang

    Section on Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, NICHD/NIH, Bethesda, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Geoffrey Vargish

    Section on Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, NICHD/NIH, Bethesda, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Tyler Ekins

    Section on Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, NICHD/NIH, Bethesda, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Kurt Auville

    Section on Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, NICHD/NIH, Bethesda, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Jason C Wester

    Section on Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, NICHD/NIH, Bethesda, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Mandy Lai

    Section on Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, NICHD/NIH, Bethesda, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Connie Mackenzie-Gray Scott

    Section on Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, NICHD/NIH, Bethesda, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  10. Xiaoqing Yuan

    Section on Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, NICHD/NIH, Bethesda, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  11. Steven Hunt

    Section on Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, NICHD/NIH, Bethesda, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  12. Daniel Abebe

    Section on Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, NICHD/NIH, Bethesda, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  13. Qing Xu

    Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  14. Jordane Dimidschstein

    Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  15. Gordon Fishell

    Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  16. Ramesh Chittajallu

    Section on Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, NICHD/NIH, Bethesda, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  17. Chris J McBain

    Section on Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, NICHD/NIH, Bethesda, United States
    For correspondence
    mcbainc@mail.nih.gov
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5909-0157

Funding

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Intramural research program)

  • Chris J McBain

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS081297; NS074972)

  • Gordon Fishell

National Institute of Mental Health (MH071679)

  • Gordon Fishell

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

Reviewing Editor

  1. Marlene Bartos, University of Freiburg, Germany

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All experiments were conducted in accordance with animal protocols approved by the National Institutes of Health (ASP# 17-045).

Version history

  1. Received: September 19, 2019
  2. Accepted: February 12, 2020
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: February 13, 2020 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: February 24, 2020 (version 2)

Copyright

This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.

Metrics

  • 3,727
    views
  • 614
    downloads
  • 25
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

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. Kenneth A Pelkey
  2. Daniela Calvigioni
  3. Calvin Fang
  4. Geoffrey Vargish
  5. Tyler Ekins
  6. Kurt Auville
  7. Jason C Wester
  8. Mandy Lai
  9. Connie Mackenzie-Gray Scott
  10. Xiaoqing Yuan
  11. Steven Hunt
  12. Daniel Abebe
  13. Qing Xu
  14. Jordane Dimidschstein
  15. Gordon Fishell
  16. Ramesh Chittajallu
  17. Chris J McBain
(2020)
Paradoxical network excitation by glutamate release from VGluT3+ GABAergic interneurons
eLife 9:e51996.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.51996

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.51996

Further reading

    1. Neuroscience
    Mischa Vance Bandet, Ian Robert Winship
    Research Article

    Despite substantial progress in mapping the trajectory of network plasticity resulting from focal ischemic stroke, the extent and nature of changes in neuronal excitability and activity within the peri-infarct cortex of mice remains poorly defined. Most of the available data have been acquired from anesthetized animals, acute tissue slices, or infer changes in excitability from immunoassays on extracted tissue, and thus may not reflect cortical activity dynamics in the intact cortex of an awake animal. Here, in vivo two-photon calcium imaging in awake, behaving mice was used to longitudinally track cortical activity, network functional connectivity, and neural assembly architecture for 2 months following photothrombotic stroke targeting the forelimb somatosensory cortex. Sensorimotor recovery was tracked over the weeks following stroke, allowing us to relate network changes to behavior. Our data revealed spatially restricted but long-lasting alterations in somatosensory neural network function and connectivity. Specifically, we demonstrate significant and long-lasting disruptions in neural assembly architecture concurrent with a deficit in functional connectivity between individual neurons. Reductions in neuronal spiking in peri-infarct cortex were transient but predictive of impairment in skilled locomotion measured in the tapered beam task. Notably, altered neural networks were highly localized, with assembly architecture and neural connectivity relatively unaltered a short distance from the peri-infarct cortex, even in regions within ‘remapped’ forelimb functional representations identified using mesoscale imaging with anaesthetized preparations 8 weeks after stroke. Thus, using longitudinal two-photon microscopy in awake animals, these data show a complex spatiotemporal relationship between peri-infarct neuronal network function and behavioral recovery. Moreover, the data highlight an apparent disconnect between dramatic functional remapping identified using strong sensory stimulation in anaesthetized mice compared to more subtle and spatially restricted changes in individual neuron and local network function in awake mice during stroke recovery.

    1. Neuroscience
    Renbo Mao, Jianjun Yu ... Yi Rao
    Tools and Resources

    Dissection of neural circuitry underlying behaviors is a central theme in neurobiology. We have previously proposed the concept of chemoconnectome (CCT) to cover the entire chemical transmission between neurons and target cells in an organism and created tools for studying it (CCTomics) by targeting all genes related to the CCT in Drosophila. Here we have created lines targeting the CCT in a conditional manner after modifying GFP RNA interference, Flp-out, and CRISPR/Cas9 technologies. All three strategies have been validated to be highly effective, with the best using chromatin-peptide fused Cas9 variants and scaffold optimized sgRNAs. As a proof of principle, we conducted a comprehensive intersection analysis of CCT genes expression profiles in the clock neurons, uncovering 43 CCT genes present in clock neurons. Specific elimination of each from clock neurons revealed that loss of the neuropeptide CNMa in two posterior dorsal clock neurons (DN1ps) or its receptor (CNMaR) caused advanced morning activity, indicating a suppressive role of CNMa-CNMaR on morning anticipation, opposite to the promoting role of PDF-PDFR on morning anticipation. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of conditional CCTomics and its tools created here and establish an antagonistic relationship between CNMa-CNMaR and PDF-PDFR signaling in regulating morning anticipation.