Parkin contributes to synaptic vesicle autophagy in Bassoon-deficient mice

Abstract

Mechanisms regulating the turnover of synaptic vesicle (SV) proteins are not well understood. They are thought to require poly-ubiquitination and degradation through proteasome, endo-lysosomal or autophagy-related pathways. Bassoon was shown to negatively regulate presynaptic autophagy in part by scaffolding Atg5. Here, we show that increased autophagy in Bassoon knockout neurons depends on poly-ubiquitination and that the loss of Bassoon leads to elevated levels of ubiquitinated synaptic proteins per se. Our data show that Bassoon knockout neurons have a smaller SV pool size and a higher turnover rate as indicated by a younger pool of SV2. The E3 ligase Parkin is required for increased autophagy in Bassoon-deficient neurons as the knockdown of Parkin normalized autophagy and SV protein levels and rescued impaired SV recycling. These data indicate that Bassoon is a key regulator of SV proteostasis and that Parkin is a key E3 ligase in the autophagy-mediated clearance of SV proteins.

Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Sheila Hoffmann-Conaway

    German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Berlin, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Marisa M Brockmann

    Institut für Neurophysiologie, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-1386-5359
  3. Katharina Schneider

    German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Berlin, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Anil Annamneedi

    Department of Neurochemistry and Molecular Biology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Kazi Atikur Rahman

    German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Berlin, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8124-6026
  6. Christine Bruns

    German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Berlin, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Kathrin Textoris-Taube

    Institute of Biochemistry, Core Facility High Throughput Mass Spectrometry, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Thorsten Trimbuch

    Department of Neurophysiology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Karl-Heinz Smalla

    Department of Neurochemistry and Molecular Biology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  10. Christian Rosenmund

    Institut für Neurophysiologie, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3905-2444
  11. Eckart D Gundelfinger

    Department of Neurochemistry and Molecular Biology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  12. Craig Curtis Garner

    German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Berlin, Germany
    For correspondence
    craig.garner@dzne.de
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1970-5417
  13. Carolina Montenegro-Venegas

    Department of Neurochemistry and Molecular Biology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
    For correspondence
    cmontene@lin-magdeburg.de
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Funding

Federal Government of Germany (SFB958)

  • Craig Curtis Garner

Federal Government of Germany (SFB779/B09)

  • Eckart D Gundelfinger

BMBF (20150065)

  • Eckart D Gundelfinger

BMBF (20150065)

  • Karl-Heinz Smalla

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

Ethics

Animal experimentation: Breeding of animals and experiments using animal material were carried out in accordance with the European Communities Council Directive (2010/63/EU) and approved by the local animal care committees of Sachsen-Anhalt or the animal welfare committee of Charité Medical University and the Berlin state government (protocol number: T0036/14, O0208/16).

Copyright

© 2020, Hoffmann-Conaway 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

  • 2,879
    views
  • 440
    downloads
  • 47
    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. Sheila Hoffmann-Conaway
  2. Marisa M Brockmann
  3. Katharina Schneider
  4. Anil Annamneedi
  5. Kazi Atikur Rahman
  6. Christine Bruns
  7. Kathrin Textoris-Taube
  8. Thorsten Trimbuch
  9. Karl-Heinz Smalla
  10. Christian Rosenmund
  11. Eckart D Gundelfinger
  12. Craig Curtis Garner
  13. Carolina Montenegro-Venegas
(2020)
Parkin contributes to synaptic vesicle autophagy in Bassoon-deficient mice
eLife 9:e56590.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56590

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56590

Further reading

    1. Neuroscience
    William T Redman, Santiago Acosta-Mendoza ... Michael J Goard
    Research Article

    Although grid cells are one of the most well-studied functional classes of neurons in the mammalian brain, whether there is a single orientation and spacing value per grid module has not been carefully tested. We analyze a recent large-scale recording of medial entorhinal cortex to characterize the presence and degree of heterogeneity of grid properties within individual modules. We find evidence for small, but robust, variability and hypothesize that this property of the grid code could enhance the encoding of local spatial information. Performing analysis on synthetic populations of grid cells, where we have complete control over the amount heterogeneity in grid properties, we demonstrate that grid property variability of a similar magnitude to the analyzed data leads to significantly decreased decoding error. This holds even when restricted to activity from a single module. Our results highlight how the heterogeneity of the neural response properties may benefit coding and opens new directions for theoretical and experimental analysis of grid cells.

    1. Genetics and Genomics
    2. Neuroscience
    Monique Marylin Alves de Almeida, Yves De Repentigny ... Rashmi Kothary
    Research Article

    Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is caused by mutations in the Survival Motor Neuron 1 (SMN1) gene. While traditionally viewed as a motor neuron disorder, there is involvement of various peripheral organs in SMA. Notably, fatty liver has been observed in SMA mouse models and SMA patients. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether intrinsic depletion of SMN protein in the liver contributes to pathology in the peripheral or central nervous systems. To address this, we developed a mouse model with a liver-specific depletion of SMN by utilizing an Alb-Cre transgene together with one Smn2B allele and one Smn1 exon 7 allele flanked by loxP sites. Initially, we evaluated phenotypic changes in these mice at postnatal day 19 (P19), when the severe model of SMA, the Smn2B/- mice, exhibit many symptoms of the disease. The liver-specific SMN depletion does not induce motor neuron death, neuromuscular pathology or muscle atrophy, characteristics typically observed in the Smn2B/- mouse at P19. However, mild liver steatosis was observed, although no changes in liver function were detected. Notably, pancreatic alterations resembled that of Smn2B/-mice, with a decrease in insulin-producing β-cells and an increase in glucagon-producingα-cells, accompanied by a reduction in blood glucose and an increase in plasma glucagon and glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1). These changes were transient, as mice at P60 exhibited recovery of liver and pancreatic function. While the mosaic pattern of the Cre-mediated excision precludes definitive conclusions regarding the contribution of liver-specific SMN depletion to overall tissue pathology, our findings highlight an intricate connection between liver function and pancreatic abnormalities in SMA.