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Supplementary Table S1, Gene sets that are enriched in Hmga2/GFP-positive and -negative PDAC cells; Supplementary Table S2, A stringent list of Blimp1-dependent genes that are either induced or repressed under hypoxia; Supplementary Table S3, GO terms enriched in hypoxia-induced, Blimp1-dependent genes by FuncAssociate 3.0.

Supplementary Figure S1. Isolation of the Hmga2-GFPpos PDAC sub-population from the KPCcolors mice and GFPpos PDAC cells are a highly metastatic state;Supplementary Figure S2. Highly metastatic PDAC cells have a gene signature that is not enriched for CSC markers and distal PDAC metastases reveal minor gene expression changes related to glucose metabolism;Supplementary Figure S3. Identification of top candidate pro-metastatic genes and interrogation of Blimp1 function in PDAC metastasis;Supplementary Figure S4. Hmga2positive PDAC areas overlap with hypoxic areas and Hmga2 protein is slightly induced by hypoxia but not critical to the expression of hypoxia-induced target genes;Supplementary Figure S5. Hypoxia-induced Blimp1 expression is linked to functional HRE motifs 240 kb upstream of its transcription start site;Supplementary Figure S6. Blimp1 may contribute to migratory and clonal growth ability and is critical for a subset of hypoxia-induced gene expression changes that are independent of changes in chromatin accessibility;Supplementary Figure S7. Blimp1 regulates a subset of hypoxia-induced genes; Supplementary Figure S8. Blimp1 is required for hypoxia-induced cell cycle arrest and the expression of metastasis modulators.

All animals carefully studied sleep, suggesting that sleep as a behavioral state exists in all animal life. Such evolutionary maintenance of an otherwise vulnerable period of environmental detachment suggests that sleep must be integral in fundamental biological needs. Despite over a century of research, the knowledge of what sleep does at the tissue, cellular or molecular levels remain cursory. Currently, sleep is defined based on behavioral criteria and physiological measures rather than at the cellular or molecular level. Physiologically, sleep has been described as two main states, non-rapid eye moment (NREM) and REM/paradoxical sleep (PS), which are defined in the neocortex by synchronous oscillations and paradoxical wake-like activity, respectively. For decades, these two sleep states were believed to be defining characteristics of only mammalian and avian sleep. Recent work has revealed slow oscillation, silencing, and paradoxical/REM-like activities in reptiles, fish, flies, worms, and cephalopods suggesting that these sleep dynamics and associated physiological states may have emerged early in animal evolution. Here, we discuss these recent developments supporting the conservation of neural dynamics (silencing, oscillation, paradoxical activity) of sleep states across phylogeny.

INTRODUCTION: Sleep destabilization is strongly associated with aging and cognitive function decline. Despite sleep fragmentation being central to the most prevalent complaints of sleep problems in elderly populations, the mechanistic underpinnings of sleep instability remain elusive. Fragmented sleep during aging has been observed across species, indicating conserved underlying mechanisms across the phylogenetic tree. Therefore, understanding why the aging brain fails to consolidate sleep may shed light on translational applications for improving the sleep quality of aged individuals. RATIONALE: We hypothesized that the decline in sleep quality could be due to malfunction of the neural circuits associated with sleep/wake control. It has been established that hypocretin/orexin (Hcrt/OX) neuronal activity is tightly associated with wakefulness and initiates and maintains the wake state. In this study, we investigated whether the intrinsic excitability of Hcrt neurons is altered, leading to a destabilized control of sleep/wake states during aging. RESULTS: Aged mice exhibited sleep fragmentation and a significant loss of Hcrt neurons. Hcrt neurons manifested a more frequent firing pattern, driving wake bouts and disrupting sleep continuity in aged mice. Aged Hcrt neurons were capable of eliciting more prolonged wake bouts upon optogenetic stimulations. These results suggested that hyperexcitability of Hcrt neurons emerges with age. Patch clamp recording in genetically identified Hcrt neurons revealed distinct intrinsic properties between the young and aged groups. Aged Hcrt neurons were hyperexcitable with depolarized membrane potentials (RMPs) and a smaller difference between RMP and the firing threshold. Aged Hcrt neurons expressing ChR2-eYFP were more sensitive to optogenetic stimulations, with a smaller-amplitude attenuation upon repetitive light pulse stimulations. More spikelets were generated in aged Hcrt neurons upon current injections. Recording from non-Hcrt neurons postsynaptic to Hcrt neurons revealed that optogenetic stimulation of Hcrt neurons expressing ChR2-eYFP reliably evoked time-locked postsynaptic currents (PSCs) after optogenetic stimulation more often in the aged group. Aged Hcrt neurons were characterized with a functional impairment of repolarizing M-current mediated by KCNQ2/3 channels and an anatomical loss of KCNQ2, revealed with array tomography at ultrastructural resolution. Single-nucleus RNA-sequencing (snRNA-seq) revealed molecular adaptions, including up-regulated prepro-Hcrt mRNA expression and a smaller fraction of Kcnq family subtypes Kcnq1/2/3/5 in aged Hcrt neurons. CRISPR/SaCas9–mediated disruption of Kcnq2/3 genes selectively in Hcrt neurons was sufficient to recapitulate the aging-associated sleep fragmentation trait in young mice. Pharmacological augmentation of M-current repolarized the RMP, suppressed spontaneous firing activity in aged Hcrt neurons, and consolidated sleep stability in aged mice. Sleep fragmentation in a narcolepsy mouse model with genetic ablation of Hcrt neurons at young ages manifested a mechanism other than hyperexcitable arousal-promoting Hcrt neurons that drives sleep fragmentation during healthy aging. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that emerging hyperexcitability of arousal-promoting Hcrt neurons is strongly associated with fragmented sleep in aged mice, which display a lowered sleep-to-wake transition threshold defined for Hcrt neuronal activity. We have demonstrated that the down-regulation of KCNQ2/3 channels compromising repolarization drives Hcrt neuronal hyperexcitability, which leads to sleep instability during aging. Pharmacological remedy of sleep continuity through targeting KCNQ2/3 channels in aged mice confers a potential translational therapy strategy for improving sleep quality in aged individuals.

Neurological disorders encompass an extremely broad range of conditions, including those that present early in development and those that progress slowly or manifest with advanced age. Although these disorders have distinct underlying etiologies, the activation of shared pathways, e.g., integrated stress response (ISR) and the development of shared phenotypes (sleep deficits) may offer clues toward understanding some of the mechanistic underpinnings of neurologic dysfunction. While it is incontrovertibly complex, the relationship between sleep and persistent stress in the brain has broad implications in understanding neurological disorders from development to degeneration. The convergent nature of the ISR could be a common thread linking genetically distinct neurological disorders through the dysregulation of a core cellular homeostasis pathway.

Most of an animal’s neuronal cells are present at birth and continue to function until the animal’s death. Thus, in contrast to a skin, blood or liver cell, whose life cycle ranges from days to months, a neuron may need to maintain its integrity across decades, all the while maintaining its capacity to connect to other neurons in an ever-changing environment. This unique cellular aging constraint requires permanent homeostatic and plastic capabilities to maintain circuitry over years and create new connections and controlling ad hoc neurochemical changes within the neuronal cells, as well as in their extracellular environment. While it is unclear how neural tissues achieve such a feat, a recurring period of our lives may be critical for the survival, maintenance, and plasticity of our brain: sleep. Although often described to as a behavior, we hypothesize that sleep and its stages are a recurring biological state critical for the cellular maintenance of plasticity of the central nervous system and associated cognitive abilities. Over the average 75-year life span, an individual may sleep over 10,000 full days. However, those 10,000 days of sleep are not distributed evenly across a lifetime; sleep duration often declines with age. There is strong evidence in young to middle-aged adults that reduced sleep quality correlates with cognitive impairment, which suggests that life-span changes in sleep contribute to the widespread changes in cognitive functioning commonly observed in older adults. If so, then improving sleep might delay or reverse cognitive aging. However, there is a massive gap between describing comorbidity of sleep disturbances and cognitive decline in aging to understanding the mechanistic interlinks between sleep, aging, and cognition. The goal of this perspective is to provide new insights on the role(s) of sleep on the nuclear, membrane/synapse, and extracellular components of the brain tissue during aging.

Sleep is essential to all animals with a nervous system. Nevertheless, the core cellular function of sleep is unknown, and there is no conserved molecular marker to define sleep across phylogeny. Time-lapse imaging of chromosomal markers in single cells of live zebrafish revealed that sleep increases chromosome dynamics in individual neurons but not in two other cell types. Manipulation of sleep, chromosome dynamics, neuronal activity, and DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) showed that chromosome dynamics are low and the number of DSBs accumulates during wakefulness. In turn, sleep increases chromosome dynamics, which are necessary to reduce the amount of DSBs. These results establish chromosome dynamics as a potential marker to define single sleeping cells, and propose that the restorative function of sleep is nuclear maintenance., Do single neurons require sleep and what is the conserved cellular function of sleep? In this paper, the authors use real-time imaging of chromosomes in individual cells within live zebrafish to show that sleep increases chromosome dynamics, which are necessary to reduce DNA damage that is accumulated during wakefulness.

Slow-wave sleep and rapid eye movement (or paradoxical) sleep have been found in mammals, birds and lizards, but it is unclear whether these neuronal signatures are found in non-amniotic vertebrates. Here we develop non-invasive fluorescence-based polysomnography for zebrafish, and show—using unbiased, brain-wide activity recording coupled with assessment of eye movement, muscle dynamics and heart rate—that there are at least two major sleep signatures in zebrafish. These signatures, which we term slow bursting sleep and propagating wave sleep, share commonalities with those of slow-wave sleep and paradoxical or rapid eye movement sleep, respectively. Further, we find that melanin-concentrating hormone signalling (which is involved in mammalian sleep) also regulates propagating wave sleep signatures and the overall amount of sleep in zebrafish, probably via activation of ependymal cells. These observations suggest that common neural signatures of sleep may have emerged in the vertebrate brain over 450 million years ago. Fluorescence-based polysomnography in zebrafish reveals two major sleep signatures that share features with those of amniotes, which suggests that common neural sleep signatures emerged in the vertebrate brain over 450 million years ago.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most metastatic and deadly cancers. Despite the clinical significance of metastatic spread, our understanding of molecular mechanisms that drive PDAC metastatic ability remains limited. By generating a genetically engineered mouse model of human PDAC, we uncover a transient subpopulation of cancer cells with exceptionally high metastatic ability. Global gene expression profiling and functional analyses uncovered the transcription factor BLIMP1 as a driver of PDAC metastasis. The highly metastatic PDAC subpopulation is enriched for hypoxia-induced genes, and hypoxia-mediated induction of BLIMP1 contributes to the regulation of a subset of hypoxia-associated gene expression programs. These findings support a model in which upregulation of BLIMP1 links microenvironmental cues to a metastatic stem cell character. Significance: PDAC is an almost uniformly lethal cancer, largely due to its tendency for metastasis. We define a highly metastatic subpopulation of cancer cells, uncover a key transcriptional regulator of metastatic ability, and define hypoxia as an important factor within the tumor microenvironment that increases metastatic proclivity. Cancer Discov; 7(10); 1184–99. ©2017 AACR. See related commentary by Vakoc and Tuveson, p. 1067. This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 1047

SummaryRefinement of mammalian neural circuits involves substantial experience-dependent synapse elimination. Using in vivo two-photon imaging, we found that experience-dependent elimination of postsynaptic dendritic spines in the cortex was accelerated in ephrin-A2 knockout (KO) mice, resulting in fewer adolescent spines integrated into adult circuits. Such increased spine removal in ephrin-A2 KOs depended on activation of glutamate receptors, as blockade of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors eliminated the difference in spine loss between wild-type and KO mice. We also showed that ephrin-A2 in the cortex colocalized with glial glutamate transporters, which were significantly downregulated in ephrin-A2 KOs. Consistently, glial glutamate transport was reduced in ephrin-A2 KOs, resulting in an accumulation of synaptic glutamate. Finally, inhibition of glial glutamate uptake promoted spine elimination in wild-type mice, resembling the phenotype of ephrin-A2 KOs. Together, our results suggest that ephrin-A2 regulates experience-dependent, NMDA receptor-mediated synaptic pruning through glial glutamate transport during maturation of the mouse cortex.

The distribution of proteins within sub-synaptic compartments is an essential aspect of their neurological function. Current methodologies, such as electron microscopy (EM) and super-resolution imaging techniques, can provide the precise localization of proteins, but are often limited to a small number of one-time observations with narrow spatial and molecular coverage. The diversity of synaptic proteins and synapse types demands synapse analysis on a scale that is prohibitive with current methods. Here, we demonstrate SubSynMAP, a fast, multiplexed sub-synaptic protein analysis method using wide-field data from deconvolution array tomography (ATD). SubSynMAP generates probability distributions for that reveal the functional range of proteins within the averaged synapse of a particular class. This enables the differentiation of closely juxtaposed proteins. Using this method, we analyzed 15 synaptic proteins in normal and Fragile X mental retardation syndrome (FXS) model mouse cortex, and revealed disease-specific modifications of sub-synaptic protein distributions across synapse classes and cortical layers.

The distribution of proteins within sub-synaptic compartments is an essential aspect of their neurological function. Current methodologies, such as electron microscopy (EM) and super-resolution imaging techniques, can provide the precise localization of proteins, but are often limited to a small number of one-time observations with narrow spatial and molecular coverage. The diversity of synaptic proteins and synapse types demands synapse analysis on a scale that is prohibitive with current methods. Here, we demonstrate SubSynMAP, a fast, multiplexed sub-synaptic protein analysis method using wide-field data from deconvolution array tomography (ATD). SubSynMAP generates probability distributions for that reveal the functional range of proteins within the averaged synapse of a particular class. This enables the differentiation of closely juxtaposed proteins. Using this method, we analyzed 15 synaptic proteins in normal and Fragile X mental retardation syndrome (FXS) model mouse cortex, and revealed disease-specific modifications of sub-synaptic protein distributions across synapse classes and cortical layers. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.20560.001

Sleep is tightly regulated by the circadian clock and homeostatic mechanisms. Although the sleep/wake cycle is known to be associated with structural and physiological synaptic changes that benefit the brain, the function of sleep is still debated. The hypothalamic hypocretin/orexin (Hcrt) neurons regulate various functions including feeding, reward, sleep, and wake. Continuous imaging of single neuronal circuits in live animals is vital to understanding the role of sleep in regulating synaptic dynamics, and the transparency of the zebrafish model enables time-lapse imaging of single synapses during both day and night. Here, we use the gephyrin (Gphnb) protein, a central inhibitory synapse organizer, as a fluorescent post-synaptic marker of inhibitory synapses. Double labeling showed that Gphnb-tagRFP and collybistin-EGFP clusters co-localized in dendritic inhibitory synapses. Using a transgenic hcrt:Gphnb-EGFP zebrafish, we showed that the number of inhibitory synapses in the dendrites of Hcrt neurons was increased during development. To determine the effect of sleep on the inhibitory synapses, we performed two-photon live imaging of Gphnb-EGFP in Hcrt neurons during day and night, under light/dark and constant light and dark conditions, and following sleep deprivation (SD). We found that synapse number increased during the night under light/dark conditions but that these changes were eliminated under constant light or dark conditions. SD reduced synapse number during the night, and the number increased during post-deprivation daytime sleep rebound. These results suggest that rhythmic structural plasticity of inhibitory synapses in Hcrt dendrites is independent of the circadian clock and is modulated by consolidated wake and sleep.

In the developing central nervous system (CNS), the control of synapse number and function is critical to the formation of neural circuits. We previously demonstrated that astrocyte-secreted factors powerfully induce the formation of functional excitatory synapses between CNS neurons. Astrocyte-secreted thrombospondins induce the formation of structural synapses, but these synapses are postsynaptically silent. Here we use biochemical fractionation of astrocyte-conditioned medium to identify glypican 4 (Gpc4) and glypican 6 (Gpc6) as astrocyte-secreted signals sufficient to induce functional synapses between purified retinal ganglion cell neurons, and show that depletion of these molecules from astrocyte-conditioned medium significantly reduces its ability to induce postsynaptic activity. Application of Gpc4 to purified neurons is sufficient to increase the frequency and amplitude of glutamatergic synaptic events. This is achieved by increasing the surface level and clustering, but not overall cellular protein level, of the GluA1 subunit of the AMPA (α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid) glutamate receptor (AMPAR). Gpc4 and Gpc6 are expressed by astrocytes in vivo in the developing CNS, with Gpc4 expression enriched in the hippocampus and Gpc6 enriched in the cerebellum. Finally, we demonstrate that Gpc4-deficient mice have defective synapse formation, with decreased amplitude of excitatory synaptic currents in the developing hippocampus and reduced recruitment of AMPARs to synapses. These data identify glypicans as a family of novel astrocyte-derived molecules that are necessary and sufficient to promote glutamate receptor clustering and receptivity and to induce the formation of postsynaptically functioning CNS synapses.

Sleep is a fundamental and evolutionarily conserved aspect of animal life. Recent studies have shed light on the role of sleep in synaptic plasticity. Demonstrations of memory replay and synapse homeostasis suggest that one essential role of sleep is in the consolidation and optimization of synaptic circuits to retain salient memory traces despite the noise of daily experience. Here, we review this recent evidence, and suggest that sleep creates a heightened state of plasticity, which may be essential for this optimization. Furthermore, we discuss how sleep deficits seen in diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and autism spectrum disorders might not just reflect underlying circuit malfunction, but could also play a direct role in the progression of those disorders.

The action of many extracellular guidance cues on axon pathfinding requires Ca2+influx at the growth cone (Hong et al., 2000; Nishiyama et al., 2003; Henley and Poo, 2004), but how activation of guidance cue receptors leads to opening of plasmalemmal ion channels remains largely unknown. Analogous to the chemotaxis of amoeboid cells (Parent et al., 1998; Servant et al., 2000), we found that a gradient of chemoattractant triggered rapid asymmetric PI(3,4,5)P3accumulation at the growth cone's leading edge, as detected by the translocation of a GFP-tagged binding domain of Akt inXenopus laevisspinal neurons. Growth cone chemoattraction required PI(3,4,5)P3production and Akt activation, and genetic perturbation of polarized Akt activity disrupted axon pathfindingin vitroandin vivo. Furthermore, patch-clamp recording from growth cones revealed that exogenous PI(3,4,5)P3rapidly activated TRP (transient receptor potential) channels, and asymmetrically applied PI(3,4,5)P3was sufficient to induce chemoattractive growth cone turning in a manner that required downstream Ca2+signaling. Thus, asymmetric PI(3,4,5)P3elevation and Akt activation are early events in growth cone chemotaxis that link receptor activation to TRP channel opening and Ca2+signaling. Altogether, our findings reveal that PI(3,4,5)P3elevation polarizes to the growth cone's leading edge and can serve as an early regulator during chemotactic guidance.

In mammals, hypocretin/orexin (HCRT) neuropeptides are important sleep–wake regulators and HCRT deficiency causes narcolepsy. In addition to fragmented wakefulness, narcoleptic mammals also display sleep fragmentation, a less understood phenotype recapitulated in the zebrafish HCRT receptor mutant ( hcrtr −/−). We therefore used zebrafish to study the potential mediators of HCRT-mediated sleep consolidation. Similar to mammals, zebrafish HCRT neurons express vesicular glutamate transporters indicating conservation of the excitatory phenotype. Visualization of the entire HCRT circuit in zebrafish stably expressing hcrt:EGFP revealed parallels with established mammalian HCRT neuroanatomy, including projections to the pineal gland, where hcrtr mRNA is expressed. As pineal-produced melatonin is a major sleep-inducing hormone in zebrafish, we further studied how the HCRT and melatonin systems interact functionally. mRNA level of arylalkylamine-N-acetyltransferase (AANAT2), a key enzyme of melatonin synthesis, is reduced in hcrtr −/− pineal gland during the night. Moreover, HCRT perfusion of cultured zebrafish pineal glands induces melatonin release. Together these data indicate that HCRT can modulate melatonin production at night. Furthermore, hcrtr −/− fish are hypersensitive to melatonin, but not other hypnotic compounds. Subthreshold doses of melatonin increased the amount of sleep and consolidated sleep in hcrtr −/− fish, but not in the wild-type siblings. These results demonstrate the existence of a functional HCRT neurons-pineal gland circuit able to modulate melatonin production and sleep consolidation.

Two groups this week show that embryonic nerves rely on unexpected sensory devices to guide their growth. The findings help to build a picture of how brains get wired. Ion channels formed by transient receptor potential (TRP) proteins allow adult sensory organs to respond to temperature, mechanical stress or taste. Gordon Wang and Mu-ming Poo have now found TRP channels in an unexpected place: at the tip of embryonic nerves, where the calcium ion currents that they control allow nerves to grow towards or away from guidance molecules. Li et al. show that TRP channels have similar roles in the guidance of growing nerves in the developing cerebellum. Ion channels formed by the TRP (transient receptor potential) superfamily of proteins act as sensors for temperature, osmolarity, mechanical stress and taste1,2. The growth cones of developing axons are responsible for sensing extracellular guidance factors, many of which trigger Ca2+ influx at the growth cone3,4; however, the identity of the ion channels involved remains to be clarified. Here, we report that TRP-like channel activity exists in the growth cones of cultured Xenopus neurons and can be modulated by exposure to netrin-1 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor, two chemoattractants for axon guidance. Whole-cell recording from growth cones showed that netrin-1 induced a membrane depolarization, part of which remained after all major voltage-dependent channels were blocked. Furthermore, the membrane depolarization was sensitive to blockers of TRP channels. Pharmacological blockade of putative TRP currents or downregulation of Xenopus TRP-1 (xTRPC1) expression with a specific morpholino oligonucleotide abolished the growth-cone turning and Ca2+ elevation induced by a netrin-1 gradient. Thus, TRPC currents reflect early events in the growth cone's detection of some extracellular guidance signals, resulting in membrane depolarization and cytoplasmic Ca2+ elevation that mediates the turning of growth cones.

Background: Stroke is a major cause of disability yet pharmacotherapy targeting the recovery phase is lacking. Cortical circuit reorganization adjacent to the stroke site promotes recovery, thus elucidating mechanisms that promote this plasticity could lead to new therapeutics. Tonic neuronal inhibition, mediated by extrasynaptic GABA A receptors,inhibits post-stroke recovery. However, effects of phasic (synaptic) GABA signaling - which promotes plasticity during development - are unknown. Here we use a combined approach of i) array tomography to determine the composition of GABA synapses in the post-stroke mouse brain, ii) electrophysiology to determine whether stroke leads to functional changes in GABA-mediated phasic inhibition, and (iii) treatment with zolpidem, an FDA-approved GABA agonist, to modulate recovery. Results: We found, using array tomography, a 1.7-fold increase in the number of GABAergic synapses containing the α1 receptor subunit in layer 5 of the peri-infarct cortex (synapse number/μm 3 : 0.039±0.006 (control) vs 0.064±0.006 (stroke); PA receptors. Low dose zolpidem increased GABA A phasic signaling in layer 5 pyramidal cells and notably increased the rate and extent of behavioral recovery without altering infarct size. Conclusions: These data provide the first evidence that enhanced GABA A -mediated synaptic activity during the recovery phase improves stroke outcome. These data identify modulation of phasic GABA signaling as a novel therapeutic strategy for stroke, indicate zolpidem as a potential drug to improve recovery, and underscore the necessity to distinguish the role of tonic and phasic GABA inhibition in stroke recovery.

To achieve its precise neural connectivity, the developing mammalian nervous system undergoes extensive activity-dependent synapse remodelling. Recently, microglial cells have been shown to be responsible for a portion of synaptic pruning, but the remaining mechanisms remain unknown. Here we report a new role for astrocytes in actively engulfing central nervous system synapses. This process helps to mediate synapse elimination, requires the MEGF10 and MERTK phagocytic pathways, and is strongly dependent on neuronal activity. Developing mice deficient in both astrocyte pathways fail to refine their retinogeniculate connections normally and retain excess functional synapses. Finally, we show that in the adult mouse brain, astrocytes continuously engulf both excitatory and inhibitory synapses. These studies reveal a novel role for astrocytes in mediating synapse elimination in the developing and adult brain, identify MEGF10 and MERTK as critical proteins in the synapse remodelling underlying neural circuit refinement, and have important implications for understanding learning and memory as well as neurological disease processes.

Recent advances in imaging tools are inspiring zebrafish researchers to tackle ever more ambitious questions in the neurosciences. Behaviorally fundamental conserved neural networks can now be potentially studied using zebrafish from a brain-wide scale to molecular resolution. In this perspective, we offer a roadmap by which a zebrafish researcher can navigate the course from collecting neural activities across the brain associated with a behavior, to unraveling molecular identities and testing the functional relevance of active neurons. In doing so, important insights will be gained as to how neural networks generate behaviors and assimilate changes in synaptic connectivity.

Introduction: Stem cell transplantation has emerged as a promising new experimental treatment for stroke; understanding its mechanism of action will facilitate the translation of stem cell therapy to the clinic. Previous work from our lab and others suggests that transplanted stem cells function by enhancing endogenous brain repair processes including structural brain plasticity. The ultimate change in brain plasticity is manifested at the synaptic level and thus we hypothesize that stem cells will enhance synaptic structural remodeling in the post-ischemic brain. To test this we use array tomography, a new high-resolution proteomic imaging method, to determine a) the number and subtype of glutamate and GABA synapses after stroke, and b) how these parameters are affected by transplantation of human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs). Method: Vehicle or hNPCs derived from fetal cortex were transplanted into the ischemic cortex of Nude rats at 7 days after distal middle cerebral artery occlusion. Neurological recovery was assessed weekly using a battery of behavioral tests. Small tissue was removed from the peri-infarct cortex at 4 weeks post-transplantation. The tissue was processed and ribbons, or arrays, of serial ultrathin sections (70 nm) were obtained using an ultramicrotome. Ribbons were stained with antibodies for the synaptic markers Synapsin1, VGlut1, VGlut2, PSD-95, GAD, VGAT, GABAAR-α1, and images taken in cortical layer 2/3 and layer 5. Computational analysis of the resultant staining pattern was used to identify and quantify subtypes of glutamatergic and GABAergic synapses. Results: Transplantation of hNPCs significantly improved behavioral recovery after stroke compared to vehicle-treated rats (4 weeks; p Conclusions: These results suggest that stem cells alter synaptic remodeling after stroke and this is coincident with stem cell-induced functional recovery.

Photon diffraction limits the resolution of conventional light microscopy at the lateral focal plane to 0.61λ/NA (λ = wavelength of light, NA = numerical aperture of the objective) and at the axial plane to 1.4nλ/NA(2) (n = refractive index of the imaging medium, 1.51 for oil immersion), which with visible wavelengths and a 1.4NA oil immersion objective is -220 nm and -600 nm in the lateral plane and axial plane respectively. This volumetric resolution is too large for the proper localization of protein clustering in subcellular structures. Here we combine the newly developed proteomic imaging technique, Array Tomography (AT), with its native 50-100 nm axial resolution achieved by physical sectioning of resin embedded tissue, and a 2D maximum likelihood deconvolution method, based on Bayes' rule, which significantly improves the resolution of protein puncta in the lateral plane to allow accurate and fast computational segmentation and analysis of labeled proteins. The physical sectioning of AT allows tissue specimens to be imaged at the physical optimum of modern high NA plan-apochormatic objectives. This translates to images that have little out of focus light, minimal aberrations and wave-front distortions. Thus, AT is able to provide images with truly invariant point spread functions (PSF), a property critical for accurate deconvolution. We show that AT with deconvolution increases the volumetric analytical fidelity of protein localization by significantly improving the modulation of high spatial frequencies up to and potentially beyond the spatial frequency cut-off of the objective. Moreover, we are able to achieve this improvement with no noticeable introduction of noise or artifacts and arrive at object segmentation and localization accuracies on par with image volumes captured using commercial implementations of super-resolution microscopes.

SummaryHow transmitter receptors modulate neuronal signaling by regulating voltage-gated ion channel expression remains an open question. Here we report dendritic localization of mRNA of Kv4.2 voltage-gated potassium channel, which regulates synaptic plasticity, and its local translational regulation by fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) linked to fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common heritable mental retardation. FMRP suppression of Kv4.2 is revealed by elevation of Kv4.2 in neurons from fmr1 knockout (KO) mice and in neurons expressing Kv4.2-3′UTR that binds FMRP. Moreover, treating hippocampal slices from fmr1 KO mice with Kv4 channel blocker restores long-term potentiation induced by moderate stimuli. Surprisingly, recovery of Kv4.2 after N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)-induced degradation also requires FMRP, likely due to NMDAR-induced FMRP dephosphorylation, which turns off FMRP suppression of Kv4.2. Our study of FMRP regulation of Kv4.2 deepens our knowledge of NMDAR signaling and reveals a FMRP target of potential relevance to FXS.

SummaryCognitive deficits in fragile X syndrome (FXS) are attributed to molecular abnormalities of the brain’s vast and heterogeneous synapse populations. Unfortunately, the density of synapses coupled with their molecular heterogeneity presents formidable challenges in understanding the specific contribution of synapse changes in FXS. We demonstrate powerful new methods for the large-scale molecular analysis of individual synapses that allow quantification of numerous specific changes in synapse populations present in the cortex of a mouse model of FXS. Analysis of nearly a million individual synapses reveals distinct, quantitative changes in synaptic proteins distributed across over 6,000 pairwise metrics. Some, but not all, of these synaptic alterations are reversed by treatment with the candidate therapeutic fenobam, an mGluR5 antagonist. These patterns of widespread, but diverse synaptic protein changes in response to global perturbation suggest that FXS and its treatment must be understood as a networked system at the synapse level.