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Neurofascin Is a Novel Component of Rod Photoreceptor Synapses in the Outer Retina

Neural circuit formation is an intricate and complex process where multiple neuron types must come together to form synaptic connections at a precise location and time. How this process is orchestrated during development remains poorly understood. Cell adhesion molecules are known to play a pivotal...

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Autores principales: Pourhoseini, Sahar, Goswami-Sewell, Debalina, Zuniga-Sanchez, Elizabeth
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7902911/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33643000
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2021.635849
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author Pourhoseini, Sahar
Goswami-Sewell, Debalina
Zuniga-Sanchez, Elizabeth
author_facet Pourhoseini, Sahar
Goswami-Sewell, Debalina
Zuniga-Sanchez, Elizabeth
author_sort Pourhoseini, Sahar
collection PubMed
description Neural circuit formation is an intricate and complex process where multiple neuron types must come together to form synaptic connections at a precise location and time. How this process is orchestrated during development remains poorly understood. Cell adhesion molecules are known to play a pivotal role in assembling neural circuits. They serve as recognition molecules between corresponding synaptic partners. In this study, we identified a new player in assembling neural circuits in the outer retina, the L1-family cell adhesion molecule Neurofascin (Nfasc). Our data reveals Nfasc is expressed in the synaptic layer where photoreceptors make synaptic connections to their respective partners. A closer examination of Nfasc expression shows high levels of expression in rod bipolars but not in cone bipolars. Disruption of Nfasc using a conditional knockout allele results in selective loss of pre- and post-synaptic proteins in the rod synaptic layer but not in the cone synaptic layer. Electron microscopic analysis confirms that indeed there are abnormal synaptic structures with less dendrites of rod bipolars innervating rod terminals in loss of Nfasc animals. Consistent with these findings, we also observe a decrease in rod-driven retinal responses with disruption of Nfasc function but not in cone-driven responses. Taken together, our data suggest a new role of Nfasc in rod synapses within the mouse outer retina.
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spelling pubmed-79029112021-02-25 Neurofascin Is a Novel Component of Rod Photoreceptor Synapses in the Outer Retina Pourhoseini, Sahar Goswami-Sewell, Debalina Zuniga-Sanchez, Elizabeth Front Neural Circuits Neuroscience Neural circuit formation is an intricate and complex process where multiple neuron types must come together to form synaptic connections at a precise location and time. How this process is orchestrated during development remains poorly understood. Cell adhesion molecules are known to play a pivotal role in assembling neural circuits. They serve as recognition molecules between corresponding synaptic partners. In this study, we identified a new player in assembling neural circuits in the outer retina, the L1-family cell adhesion molecule Neurofascin (Nfasc). Our data reveals Nfasc is expressed in the synaptic layer where photoreceptors make synaptic connections to their respective partners. A closer examination of Nfasc expression shows high levels of expression in rod bipolars but not in cone bipolars. Disruption of Nfasc using a conditional knockout allele results in selective loss of pre- and post-synaptic proteins in the rod synaptic layer but not in the cone synaptic layer. Electron microscopic analysis confirms that indeed there are abnormal synaptic structures with less dendrites of rod bipolars innervating rod terminals in loss of Nfasc animals. Consistent with these findings, we also observe a decrease in rod-driven retinal responses with disruption of Nfasc function but not in cone-driven responses. Taken together, our data suggest a new role of Nfasc in rod synapses within the mouse outer retina. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-02-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7902911/ /pubmed/33643000 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2021.635849 Text en Copyright © 2021 Pourhoseini, Goswami-Sewell and Zuniga-Sanchez. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Pourhoseini, Sahar
Goswami-Sewell, Debalina
Zuniga-Sanchez, Elizabeth
Neurofascin Is a Novel Component of Rod Photoreceptor Synapses in the Outer Retina
title Neurofascin Is a Novel Component of Rod Photoreceptor Synapses in the Outer Retina
title_full Neurofascin Is a Novel Component of Rod Photoreceptor Synapses in the Outer Retina
title_fullStr Neurofascin Is a Novel Component of Rod Photoreceptor Synapses in the Outer Retina
title_full_unstemmed Neurofascin Is a Novel Component of Rod Photoreceptor Synapses in the Outer Retina
title_short Neurofascin Is a Novel Component of Rod Photoreceptor Synapses in the Outer Retina
title_sort neurofascin is a novel component of rod photoreceptor synapses in the outer retina
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7902911/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33643000
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2021.635849
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