Pathway-specific genetic attenuation of glutamate release alters select features of competition-based visual circuit refinement.

A hallmark of mammalian neural circuit development is the refinement of initially imprecise connections by competitive activity-dependent processes. In the developing visual system retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons from the two eyes undergo activity-dependent competition for territory in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN). The direct contributions of synaptic transmission to this process, however, remain unclear. We used a genetic approach to reduce glutamate release selectively from ipsilateral-projecting RGCs and found that their release-deficient axons failed to exclude competing axons from the ipsilateral eye territory in the dLGN. Nevertheless, the release-deficient axons consolidated and maintained their normal amount of dLGN territory, even in the face of fully active competing axons. These results show that during visual circuit refinement glutamatergic transmission plays a direct role in excluding competing axons from inappropriate target regions, but they argue that consolidation and maintenance of axonal territory are largely insensitive to alterations in synaptic activity levels.

Neuronal pentraxins mediate silent synapse conversion in the developing visual system.

Neuronal pentraxins (NPs) are hypothesized to play important roles in the recruitment of AMPA receptors (AMPARs) to immature synapses, yet a physiological role for NPs at nascent synapses in vivo has remained elusive. Here we report that the loss of NP1 and NP2 (NP1/2) leads to a dramatic and specific reduction in AMPAR-mediated transmission at developing visual system synapses. In thalamic slices taken from early postnatal mice (

Architecture and activity-mediated refinement of axonal projections from a mosaic of genetically identified retinal ganglion cells.

Our understanding of how mammalian sensory circuits are organized and develop has long been hindered by the lack of genetic markers of neurons with discrete functions. Here, we report a transgenic mouse selectively expressing GFP in a complete mosaic of transient OFF-alpha retinal ganglion cells (tOFF-alphaRGCs). This enabled us to relate the mosaic spacing, dendritic anatomy, and electrophysiology of these RGCs to their complete map of projections in the brain. We find that tOFF-alphaRGCs project exclusively to the superior colliculus (SC) and dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus and are restricted to a specific laminar depth within each of these targets. The axons of tOFF-alphaRGC are also organized into columns in the SC. Both laminar and columnar specificity develop through axon refinement. Disruption of cholinergic retinal waves prevents the emergence of columnar- but not laminar-specific tOFF-alphaRGC connections. Our findings reveal that in a genetically identified sensory map, spontaneous activity promotes synaptic specificity by segregating axons arising from RGCs of the same subtype.

Developmental control of synaptic receptivity.

Are neurons born with the ability to form and receive synapses or do they acquire these abilities during development? We have previously found that purified postnatal retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) require soluble astrocyte-derived signals to form synapses in vitro and in vivo. Here we show that newly generated embryonic day 17 (E17) RGCs are able to form but not receive synapses under these conditions. Dendrite growth is not sufficient to trigger receptivity; rather, the ability of newly generated RGCs to receive synapses is acquired at E19 in response to direct contact by neighboring cell types. Direct contact with astrocytes, which are not present at E17 but are normally generated by E19, is sufficient to induce synaptic receptivity in E17 RGCs. In contrast, amacrine contact does not induce synaptic receptivity. Interestingly, astrocyte contact alters the localization of the synaptic adhesion molecule neurexin away from dendrites. In addition, dendritic expression of neurexin is sufficient to prevent astrocyte contact-mediated increases in synapse number, suggesting a molecular mechanism by which astrocyte contact regulates neuronal synaptic receptivity. Thus, synaptic receptivity is not induced simply by dendritic elaboration but must be signaled by both contact-mediated signaling from astrocytes and a shift in the dendritic localization of neurexin.

Conditional loss of Dicer disrupts cellular and tissue morphogenesis in the cortex and hippocampus.

To investigate the role of Dicer and microRNAs in the mammalian CNS, we used mice in which the second RNase III domain of Dicer was conditionally floxed. Conditional Dicer mice were bred with mice expressing an alpha-calmodulin kinase II Cre to selectively inactivate Dicer in excitatory forebrain neurons in vivo. Inactivation of Dicer results in an array of phenotypes including microcephaly, reduced dendritic branch elaboration, and large increases in dendritic spine length with no concomitant change in spine density. Microcephaly is likely caused by a 5.5-fold increase in early postnatal apoptosis in these animals as determined by active caspase-3 and TUNEL (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated biotinylated UTP nick end labeling) staining in the cortex. Loss of Dicer function had no measurable effect on cortical lamination as determined by in situ hybridization, suggesting that microcephaly is not caused by defects in neuronal migration. Together, these results illustrate the in vivo significance of Dicer and miRNAs in the mammalian CNS and provide additional support for previous in vitro studies indicating that misregulation of this pathway may result in gross abnormalities in cell number and function that may contribute to a variety of neurological disorders.