TY - JOUR TI - Channel-independent function of UNC-9/Innexin in spatial arrangement of GABAergic synapses in C. elegans AU - Hendi, Ardalan AU - Niu, Long-Gang AU - Snow, Andrew William AU - Ikegami, Richard AU - Wang, Zhao-Wen AU - Mizumoto, Kota A2 - Hobert, Oliver A2 - Sengupta, Piali A2 - Francis, Michael M VL - 11 PY - 2022 DA - 2022/11/15 SP - e80555 C1 - eLife 2022;11:e80555 DO - 10.7554/eLife.80555 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.80555 AB - Precise synaptic connection of neurons with their targets is essential for the proper functioning of the nervous system. A plethora of signaling pathways act in concert to mediate the precise spatial arrangement of synaptic connections. Here we show a novel role for a gap junction protein in controlling tiled synaptic arrangement in the GABAergic motor neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans, in which their axons and synapses overlap minimally with their neighboring neurons within the same class. We found that while EGL-20/Wnt controls axonal tiling, their presynaptic tiling is mediated by a gap junction protein UNC-9/Innexin, that is localized at the presynaptic tiling border between neighboring dorsal D-type GABAergic motor neurons. Strikingly, the gap junction channel activity of UNC-9 is dispensable for its function in controlling tiled presynaptic patterning. While gap junctions are crucial for the proper functioning of the nervous system as channels, our finding uncovered the novel channel-independent role of UNC-9 in synapse patterning. KW - gap junction KW - synapse KW - neuronal tiling KW - wnt JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -