Caenorhabditis elegans innexins regulate active zone differentiation.

نویسندگان

  • Edward Yeh
  • Taizo Kawano
  • Sharon Ng
  • Richard Fetter
  • Wesley Hung
  • Ying Wang
  • Mei Zhen
چکیده

In a genetic screen for active zone defective mutants in Caenorhabditis elegans, we isolated a loss-of-function allele of unc-7, a gene encoding an innexin/pannexin family gap junction protein. Innexin UNC-7 regulates the size and distribution of active zones at C. elegans neuromuscular junctions. Loss-of-function mutations in another innexin, UNC-9, cause similar active zone defects as unc-7 mutants. In addition to presumptive gap junction localizations, both UNC-7 and UNC-9 are also localized perisynaptically throughout development and required in presynaptic neurons to regulate active zone differentiation. Our mosaic analyses, electron microscopy, as well as expression studies suggest a novel and likely nonjunctional role of specific innexins in active zone differentiation in addition to gap junction formations.

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عنوان ژورنال:
  • The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience

دوره 29 16  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2009