Temporal transcription factors determine circuit membership by permanently altering motor neuron-to-muscle synaptic partnerships
- University of Chicago, United States
Abstract
How circuit wiring is specified is a key question in developmental neurobiology. Previously, using the Drosophila motor system as a model, we found the classic temporal transcription factor, Hunchback acts in NB7-1 neuronal stem cells to control how many NB7-1 neuronal progeny form functional synapses on dorsal muscles (Meng et al., 2019). However, it is unknown to what extent control of motor neuron-to-muscle synaptic partnerships is a general feature of temporal transcription factors. Here, we perform additional temporal transcription factor manipulations—prolonging expression of Hunchback in NB3-1, as well as precociously expressing Pdm and Castor in NB7-1. We use confocal microscopy, calcium imaging, and electrophysiology to show that in every manipulation there are permanent alterations in neuromuscular synaptic partnerships. Our data show temporal transcription factors, as a group of molecules, are potent determinants of synaptic partner choice and therefore ultimately control circuit membership.
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 Figures 1, 1S2, 3, 4, 5.
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Author details
Funding
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01-NS105748)
- Ellie Heckscher
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32 GM007183)
- Julia L Meng
National Science Foundation ((DGE-1746045))
- Julia L Meng
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (K01 NS102342)
- Robert A Carrillo
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2020, 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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Temporal transcription factors determine circuit membership by permanently altering motor neuron-to-muscle synaptic partnerships
eLife 9:e56898.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56898
