1. Trim9 Regulates Activity-Dependent Fine-Scale Topography in Drosophila
- Author
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Limin Yang, Rei K. Morikawa, Xin Wang, Jie Zhou, Kazuo Emoto, Bing Ye, Laura Essex, Ruonan Li, Yang Xiang, Kendra Takle, and Takuya Kaneko
- Subjects
Nervous system ,Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases ,Presynaptic Terminals ,Nerve Tissue Proteins ,Sensory system ,Biology ,Article ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Tripartite Motif Proteins ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,medicine ,Animals ,Drosophila Proteins ,Premovement neuronal activity ,Axon ,030304 developmental biology ,Afferent Pathways ,0303 health sciences ,Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all) ,Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all) ,Nociceptors ,Anatomy ,Topographic map ,biology.organism_classification ,Drosophila melanogaster ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Nociceptor ,Topography, Medical ,General Agricultural and Biological Sciences ,Neuroscience ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Drosophila Protein - Abstract
Topographic projection of afferent terminals into two-dimensional maps in the central nervous system (CNS) is a general strategy used by the nervous system to encode the locations of sensory stimuli. In vertebrates, it is known that while guidance cues are critical for establishing a coarse topographic map, neural activity directs fine-scale topography between adjacent afferent terminals [1–4]. However, the molecular mechanism underlying activity-dependent regulation of fine-scale topography is poorly understood. Molecular analysis of the spatial relationship between adjacent afferent terminals requires reliable localization of the presynaptic terminals of single neurons as well as genetic manipulations with single-cell resolution in vivo. Although both requirements can potentially be met in Drosophila melanogaster [5, 6], no activity-dependent topographic system has been identified in flies [7]. Here we report a topographic system that is shaped by neuronal activity in Drosophila. With this system, we found that topographic separation of the presynaptic terminals of adjacent nociceptive neurons requires different levels of Trim9, an evolutionarily conserved signaling molecule [8–11]. Neural activity regulates Trim9 protein levels to direct fine-scale topography of sensory afferents. This study offers both a novel mechanism by which neural activity directs fine-scale topography of axon terminals and a new system to study this process at single-neuron resolution.
- Published
- 2014