TY - JOUR AB - Novelty facilitates formation of memories. The detection of novelty and storage of contextual memories are both mediated by the hippocampus, yet the mechanisms that link these two functions remain to be defined. Dentate granule cells (GCs) of the dorsal hippocampus fire upon novelty exposure forming engrams of contextual memory. However, their key excitatory inputs from the entorhinal cortex are not responsive to novelty and are insufficient to make dorsal GCs fire reliably. Here we uncover a powerful glutamatergic pathway to dorsal GCs from ventral hippocampal mossy cells (MCs) that relays novelty, and is necessary and sufficient for driving dorsal GCs activation. Furthermore, manipulation of ventral MCs activity bidirectionally regulates novelty-induced contextual memory acquisition. Our results show that ventral MCs activity controls memory formation through an intra-hippocampal interaction mechanism gated by novelty. AU - Fredes Tolorza, Felipe A AU - Silva Sifuentes, Maria A AU - Koppensteiner, Peter AU - Kobayashi, Kenta AU - Jösch, Maximilian A AU - Shigemoto, Ryuichi ID - 7551 IS - 1 JF - Current Biology TI - Ventro-dorsal hippocampal pathway gates novelty-induced contextual memory formation VL - 31 ER - TY - JOUR AB - In nerve cells the genes encoding for α2δ subunits of voltage-gated calcium channels have been linked to synaptic functions and neurological disease. Here we show that α2δ subunits are essential for the formation and organization of glutamatergic synapses. Using a cellular α2δ subunit triple-knockout/knockdown model, we demonstrate a failure in presynaptic differentiation evidenced by defective presynaptic calcium channel clustering and calcium influx, smaller presynaptic active zones, and a strongly reduced accumulation of presynaptic vesicle-associated proteins (synapsin and vGLUT). The presynaptic defect is associated with the downscaling of postsynaptic AMPA receptors and the postsynaptic density. The role of α2δ isoforms as synaptic organizers is highly redundant, as each individual α2δ isoform can rescue presynaptic calcium channel trafficking and expression of synaptic proteins. Moreover, α2δ-2 and α2δ-3 with mutated metal ion-dependent adhesion sites can fully rescue presynaptic synapsin expression but only partially calcium channel trafficking, suggesting that the regulatory role of α2δ subunits is independent from its role as a calcium channel subunit. Our findings influence the current view on excitatory synapse formation. First, our study suggests that postsynaptic differentiation is secondary to presynaptic differentiation. Second, the dependence of presynaptic differentiation on α2δ implicates α2δ subunits as potential nucleation points for the organization of synapses. Finally, our results suggest that α2δ subunits act as transsynaptic organizers of glutamatergic synapses, thereby aligning the synaptic active zone with the postsynaptic density. AU - Schöpf, Clemens L. AU - Ablinger, Cornelia AU - Geisler, Stefanie M. AU - Stanika, Ruslan I. AU - Campiglio, Marta AU - Kaufmann, Walter AU - Nimmervoll, Benedikt AU - Schlick, Bettina AU - Brockhaus, Johannes AU - Missler, Markus AU - Shigemoto, Ryuichi AU - Obermair, Gerald J. ID - 9330 IS - 14 JF - PNAS TI - Presynaptic α2δ subunits are key organizers of glutamatergic synapses VL - 118 ER - TY - JOUR AB - At the encounter with a novel environment, contextual memory formation is greatly enhanced, accompanied with increased arousal and active exploration. Although this phenomenon has been widely observed in animal and human daily life, how the novelty in the environment is detected and contributes to contextual memory formation has lately started to be unveiled. The hippocampus has been studied for many decades for its largely known roles in encoding spatial memory, and a growing body of evidence indicates a differential involvement of dorsal and ventral hippocampal divisions in novelty detection. In this brief review article, we discuss the recent findings of the role of mossy cells in the ventral hippocampal moiety in novelty detection and put them in perspective with other novelty-related pathways in the hippocampus. We propose a mechanism for novelty-driven memory acquisition in the dentate gyrus by the direct projection of ventral mossy cells to dorsal dentate granule cells. By this projection, the ventral hippocampus sends novelty signals to the dorsal hippocampus, opening a gate for memory encoding in dentate granule cells based on information coming from the entorhinal cortex. We conclude that, contrary to the presently accepted functional independence, the dorsal and ventral hippocampi cooperate to link the novelty and contextual information, and this dorso-ventral interaction is crucial for the novelty-dependent memory formation. AU - Fredes, Felipe AU - Shigemoto, Ryuichi ID - 9641 JF - Neurobiology of Learning and Memory SN - 10747427 TI - The role of hippocampal mossy cells in novelty detection VL - 183 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Rab-interacting molecule (RIM)-binding protein 2 (BP2) is a multidomain protein of the presynaptic active zone (AZ). By binding to RIM, bassoon (Bsn), and voltage-gated Ca2+ channels (CaV), it is considered to be a central organizer of the topography of CaV and release sites of synaptic vesicles (SVs) at the AZ. Here, we used RIM-BP2 knock-out (KO) mice and their wild-type (WT) littermates of either sex to investigate the role of RIM-BP2 at the endbulb of Held synapse of auditory nerve fibers (ANFs) with bushy cells (BCs) of the cochlear nucleus, a fast relay of the auditory pathway with high release probability. Disruption of RIM-BP2 lowered release probability altering short-term plasticity and reduced evoked EPSCs. Analysis of SV pool dynamics during high-frequency train stimulation indicated a reduction of SVs with high release probability but an overall normal size of the readily releasable SV pool (RRP). The Ca2+-dependent fast component of SV replenishment after RRP depletion was slowed. Ultrastructural analysis by superresolution light and electron microscopy revealed an impaired topography of presynaptic CaV and a reduction of docked and membrane-proximal SVs at the AZ. We conclude that RIM-BP2 organizes the topography of CaV, and promotes SV tethering and docking. This way RIM-BP2 is critical for establishing a high initial release probability as required to reliably signal sound onset information that we found to be degraded in BCs of RIM-BP2-deficient mice in vivo. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Rab-interacting molecule (RIM)-binding proteins (BPs) are key organizers of the active zone (AZ). Using a multidisciplinary approach to the calyceal endbulb of Held synapse that transmits auditory information at rates of up to hundreds of Hertz with submillisecond precision we demonstrate a requirement for RIM-BP2 for normal auditory signaling. Endbulb synapses lacking RIM-BP2 show a reduced release probability despite normal whole-terminal Ca2+ influx and abundance of the key priming protein Munc13-1, a reduced rate of SV replenishment, as well as an altered topography of voltage-gated (CaV)2.1 Ca2+ channels, and fewer docked and membrane proximal synaptic vesicles (SVs). This hampers transmission of sound onset information likely affecting downstream neural computations such as of sound localization. AU - Butola, Tanvi AU - Alvanos, Theocharis AU - Hintze, Anika AU - Koppensteiner, Peter AU - Kleindienst, David AU - Shigemoto, Ryuichi AU - Wichmann, Carolin AU - Moser, Tobias ID - 10051 IS - 37 JF - Journal of Neuroscience SN - 0270-6474 TI - RIM-binding protein 2 organizes Ca21 channel topography and regulates release probability and vesicle replenishment at a fast central synapse VL - 41 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Synaptic transmission, connectivity, and dendritic morphology mature in parallel during brain development and are often disrupted in neurodevelopmental disorders. Yet how these changes influence the neuronal computations necessary for normal brain function are not well understood. To identify cellular mechanisms underlying the maturation of synaptic integration in interneurons, we combined patch-clamp recordings of excitatory inputs in mouse cerebellar stellate cells (SCs), three-dimensional reconstruction of SC morphology with excitatory synapse location, and biophysical modeling. We found that postnatal maturation of postsynaptic strength was homogeneously reduced along the somatodendritic axis, but dendritic integration was always sublinear. However, dendritic branching increased without changes in synapse density, leading to a substantial gain in distal inputs. Thus, changes in synapse distribution, rather than dendrite cable properties, are the dominant mechanism underlying the maturation of neuronal computation. These mechanisms favor the emergence of a spatially compartmentalized two-stage integration model promoting location-dependent integration within dendritic subunits. AU - Biane, Celia AU - Rückerl, Florian AU - Abrahamsson, Therese AU - Saint-Cloment, Cécile AU - Mariani, Jean AU - Shigemoto, Ryuichi AU - Digregorio, David A. AU - Sherrard, Rachel M. AU - Cathala, Laurence ID - 10403 JF - eLife TI - Developmental emergence of two-stage nonlinear synaptic integration in cerebellar interneurons VL - 10 ER -