scholarly journals Partial connectomes of labeled dopaminergic circuits reveal non-synaptic communication and axonal remodeling after exposure to cocaine

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregg Wildenberg ◽  
Anastasia Sorokina ◽  
Jessica Koranda ◽  
Alexis Monical ◽  
Chad Heer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Drug Exposure ◽  
Cocaine Exposure ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Major Locus ◽  
Anatomical Plasticity ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Cell Type Specific ◽  
Serial Electron Microscopy

Dopaminergic (DA) neurons exert profound influences on behavior including addiction. However, how DA axons communicate with target neurons and how those communications change with drug exposure remains poorly understood. We leverage cell type-specific labeling with large volume serial electron microscopy to detail DA connections in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of the mouse (Mus musculus) before and after exposure to cocaine. We find that individual DA axons contain different varicosity types based on their vesicle contents. Spatially ordering along individual axons further suggests that varicosity types are non-randomly organized. DA axon varicosities rarely make specific synapses (<2%, 6/410), but instead are more likely to form spinule-like structures (15%, 61/410) with neighboring neurons. Days after a brief exposure to cocaine, DA axons were extensively branched relative to controls, formed blind-ended ‘bulbs’ filled with mitochondria, and were surrounded by elaborated glia. Finally, mitochondrial lengths increased by ~2.2 times relative to control only in DA axons and NAc spiny dendrites after cocaine exposure. We conclude that DA axonal transmission is unlikely to be mediated via classical synapses in the NAc and that the major locus of anatomical plasticity of DA circuits after exposure to cocaine are large-scale axonal re-arrangements with correlated changes in mitochondria.

scholarly journals Cocaine causes rapid remodeling of mesoaccumbens dopaminergic axons, synapses, and mitochondria

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregg Wildenberg ◽  
Anastasia Sorokina ◽  
Jessica Koranda ◽  
Alexis Monical ◽  
Chad Heer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Synaptic Vesicles ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Drugs Of Abuse ◽  
Dopamine Neurons ◽  
Addictive Behaviors ◽  
Cell Type Specific ◽  
Genetic Labeling ◽  
Mitochondrial Elongation ◽  
First Time ◽  
Serial Electron Microscopy

Abstract Detailing the ways drugs of abuse physically alter dopaminergic circuits would provide new mechanisms for explaining addictive behaviors, future targets for therapeutic intervention, and insights into the nature of synaptic plasticity. We combine recent advances in genetic labeling with large volume serial electron microscopy to detail how normal dopaminergic (DA) axons interact with putative targets in the Nucleus Accumbens (NAc) and how those interactions change in mice briefly exposed to cocaine. We find that while most DA axonal boutons are devoid of obvious signs of synapses (i.e. synaptic vesicles or synaptic densities), many DA boutons physically interdigitate with dendrites or excitatory and inhibitory axons. A brief exposure to cocaine results in large-scale remodeling: extensive DA axonal branching and frequent occurrences of axonal blind-ended “bulbs”, filled with mitochondria and reminiscent of axonal retraction in the developing and damaged brain. The number of physical interdigitations and vesicle filled boutons in DA axons scales linearly with the length of axon in both controls and cocaine exposed animals and the size or the type of interaction (i.e. axo-axonic or axo-dendritic) do not change. Finally, we find in cocaine exposed animals, mitochondrial lengths are increased ~2.5 times relative to control. Mitochondrial elongation is cell type specific: primarily in DA neurons and downstream spiny dendrites, and localized to DA axons and not DA soma or dendrites. We show for the first time the effects of cocaine on remodeling of dopamine axon morphology and mitochondria and reveal new details on how dopamine neurons physically associate with downstream targets.

scholarly journals Quantitative synapse analysis for cell-type specific connectomics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dika A. Kuljis ◽  
Khaled Zemoura ◽  
Cheryl A. Telmer ◽  
Jiseok Lee ◽  
Eunsol Park ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Apical Dendrite ◽  
Automated Detection ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Disease States ◽  
Specific Localization ◽  
Cell Type Specific ◽  
Dendritic Branches ◽  
Circuit Function

AbstractAnatomical methods for determining cell-type specific connectivity are essential to inspire and constrain our understanding of neural circuit function. We developed new genetically-encoded reagents for fluorescence-synapse labeling and connectivity analysis in brain tissue, using a fluorogen-activating protein (FAP)-or YFP-coupled, postsynaptically-localized neuroligin-1 targeting sequence (FAP/YFPpost). Sparse viral expression of FAP/YFPpost with the cell-filling, red fluorophore dTomato (dTom) enabled high-throughput, compartment-specific localization of synapses across diverse neuron types in mouse somatosensory cortex. High-resolution confocal image stacks of virally-transduced neurons were used for 3D reconstructions of postsynaptic cells and automated detection of synaptic puncta. We took advantage of the bright, far-red emission of FAPpost puncta for multichannel fluorescence alignment of dendrites, synapses, and presynaptic neurites to assess subtype-specific inhibitory connectivity onto L2 neocortical pyramidal (Pyr) neurons. Quantitative and compartment-specific comparisons show that PV inputs are the dominant source of inhibition at both the soma and across all dendritic branches examined and were particularly concentrated at the primary apical dendrite, a previously unrecognized compartment of L2 Pyr neurons. Our fluorescence-based synapse labeling reagents will facilitate large-scale and cell-type specific quantitation of changes in synaptic connectivity across development, learning, and disease states.

scholarly journals Cell-type specific innervation of cortical pyramidal cells at their apical dendrites

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Karimi ◽  
Jan Odenthal ◽  
Florian Drawitsch ◽  
Kevin M Boergens ◽  
Moritz Helmstaedter
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Pyramidal Cells ◽  
Inhibitory Input ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Cell Type Specific ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Apical Dendrites ◽  
Computational Properties

We investigated the synaptic innervation of apical dendrites of cortical pyramidal cells in a region between layers (L) 1 and 2 using 3-D electron microscopy applied to four cortical regions in mouse. We found the relative inhibitory input at the apical dendrite’s main bifurcation to be more than 2-fold larger for L2 than L3 and L5 thick-tufted pyramidal cells. Towards the distal tuft dendrites in upper L1, the relative inhibitory input was at least about 2-fold larger for L5 pyramidal cells than for all others. Only L3 pyramidal cells showed homogeneous inhibitory input fraction. The inhibitory-to-excitatory synaptic ratio is thus specific for the types of pyramidal cells. Inhibitory axons preferentially innervated either L2 or L3/5 apical dendrites, but not both. These findings describe connectomic principles for the control of pyramidal cells at their apical dendrites and support differential computational properties of L2, L3 and subtypes of L5 pyramidal cells in cortex.

scholarly journals ASCOT identifies key regulators of neuronal subtype-specific splicing

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan P. Ling ◽  
Christopher Wilks ◽  
Rone Charles ◽  
Patrick J. Leavey ◽  
Devlina Ghosh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rna Splicing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Splice Variants ◽  
Next Generation Sequencing Data ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Sequencing Data ◽  
Large Scale Analysis ◽  
Cell Type Specific ◽  
Public Archives

AbstractPublic archives of next-generation sequencing data are growing exponentially, but the difficulty of marshaling this data has led to its underutilization by scientists. Here, we present ASCOT, a resource that uses annotation-free methods to rapidly analyze and visualize splice variants across tens of thousands of bulk and single-cell data sets in the public archive. To demonstrate the utility of ASCOT, we identify novel cell type-specific alternative exons across the nervous system and leverage ENCODE and GTEx data sets to study the unique splicing of photoreceptors. We find that PTBP1 knockdown and MSI1 and PCBP2 overexpression are sufficient to activate many photoreceptor-specific exons in HepG2 liver cancer cells. This work demonstrates how large-scale analysis of public RNA-Seq data sets can yield key insights into cell type-specific control of RNA splicing and underscores the importance of considering both annotated and unannotated splicing events.

scholarly journals State-dependent control of cortical processing speed via gain modulation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wyrick ◽  
Luca Mazzucato
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Internal State ◽  
Gain Modulation ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Information Processing Speed ◽  
Afferent Projections ◽  
Cell Type Specific

AbstractTo thrive in dynamic environments, animals can generate flexible behavior and rapidly adapt responses to a changing context and internal state. Examples of behavioral flexibility include faster stimulus responses when attentive and slower responses when distracted. Contextual modulations may occur early in the cortical hierarchy and may be implemented via afferent projections from top-down pathways or neuromodulation onto sensory cortex. However, the computational mechanisms mediating the effects of such projections are not known. Here, we investigate the effects of afferent projections on the information processing speed of cortical circuits. Using a biologically plausible model based on recurrent networks of excitatory and inhibitory neurons arranged in cluster, we classify the effects of cell-type specific perturbations on the circuit’s stimulus-processing capability. We found that perturbations differentially controlled processing speed, leading to counter-intuitive effects such as improved performance with increased input variance. Our theory explains the effects of all perturbations in terms of gain modulation, which controls the timescale of the circuit dynamics. We tested our model using large-scale electrophysiological recordings from the visual hierarchy in freely running mice, where a decrease in single-cell gain during locomotion explained the observed acceleration of visual processing speed. Our results establish a novel theory of cell-type specific perturbations linking connectivity, dynamics, and information processing via gain modulations.

scholarly journals Cell-type specific innervation of cortical pyramidal cells at their apical tufts

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Karimi ◽  
Jan Odenthal ◽  
Florian Drawitsch ◽  
Kevin M. Boergens ◽  
Moritz Helmstaedter
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Pyramidal Cells ◽  
Inhibitory Input ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Layer 2 ◽  
Cell Type Specific ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
3D Em ◽  
Apical Dendrites ◽  
Computational Properties

ABSTRACTWe investigated the synaptic innervation of apical tufts of cortical pyramidal cells in a region between layers 1 and 2 using 3-D electron microscopy (3D-EM) applied to four cortical regions in mouse. Across all cortices, we found the relative inhibitory input at the apical dendrite’s main bifurcation to be more than 3-fold stronger for layer 2 pyramidal cells than for all other pyramidal cells. Towards the distal tuft dendrites in upper layer 1, however, the relative inhibitory input was about 2-fold stronger for L5 pyramidal cells than for all others. Only L3 pyramidal cells showed homogeneous inhibitory input density. The inhibitory to excitatory synaptic balance is thus specific for the types of pyramidal cells. Inhibitory axons preferentially innervated either layer 2 or L3/5 apical dendrites, but not both. These findings describe connectomic principles for the control of pyramidal cells at their apical dendrites in the upper layers of the cerebral cortex and point to differential computational properties of layer 2, layer 3 and layer 5 pyramidal cells in cortex.

scholarly journals Egr2 induction in SPNs of the ventrolateral striatum contributes to cocaine place preference in mice

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diptendu Mukherjee ◽  
Ben Jerry Gonzales ◽  
Reut Ashwal-Fluss ◽  
Hagit Turm ◽  
Maya Groysman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Drug Exposure ◽  
Dorsal Striatum ◽  
Gene Induction ◽  
Early Gene ◽  
Specific Gene ◽  
Cocaine Exposure ◽  
Neuronal Ensembles ◽  
Cocaine Seeking ◽  
Cell Type Specific

Drug addiction develops due to brain-wide plasticity within neuronal ensembles, mediated by dynamic gene expression. Though the most common approach to identify such ensembles relies on immediate early gene expression, little is known of how the activity of these genes is linked to modified behavior observed following repeated drug exposure. To address this gap, we present a broad-to-specific approach, beginning with a comprehensive investigation of brain-wide cocaine-driven gene expression, through the description of dynamic spatial patterns of gene induction in subregions of the striatum, and finally address functionality of region-specific gene induction in the development of cocaine preference. Our findings reveal differential cell-type specific dynamic transcriptional recruitment patterns within two subdomains of the dorsal striatum following repeated cocaine exposure. Furthermore, we demonstrate that induction of the IEG Egr2 in the ventrolateral striatum, as well as the cells within which it is expressed, are required for the development of cocaine seeking.

scholarly journals MeDeCom: discovery and quantification of latent components of heterogeneous methylomes

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavlo Lutsik ◽  
Martin Slawski ◽  
Gilles Gasparoni ◽  
Nikita Vedeneev ◽  
Matthias Hein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Matrix Factorization ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Computational Framework ◽  
Biological Interpretation ◽  
Cell Type Specific ◽  
Latent Components ◽  
Methylation Variation ◽  
Non Negative Matrix Factorization

Abstract It is important for large-scale epigenomic studies to determine and explore the nature of hidden confounding variation, most importantly cell composition. We developed MeDeCom as a novel reference-free computational framework that allows the decomposition of complex DNA methylomes into latent methylation components and their proportions in each sample. MeDeCom is based on constrained non-negative matrix factorization with a new biologically motivated regularization function. It accurately recovers cell-type-specific latent methylation components and their proportions. MeDeCom is a new unsupervised tool for the exploratory study of the major sources of methylation variation, which should lead to a deeper understanding and better biological interpretation.

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