PUBLICATION
In vivo trafficking and targeting of N-cadherin to nascent presynaptic terminals
- Authors
- Jontes, J.D., Emond, M.R., and Smith, S.J.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-041018-2
- Date
- 2004
- Source
- The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 24(41): 9027-9034 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Emond, Michelle, Jontes, James
- Keywords
- adhesion; imaging; spinal; synaptogenesis; Rohon-Beard; in vivo
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Cadherins/genetics*
- Cadherins/metabolism*
- Cells, Cultured
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/cytology
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/embryology
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/metabolism
- Green Fluorescent Proteins/genetics
- Membrane Proteins/metabolism
- Microscopy/methods
- Mutagenesis, Site-Directed
- Neurons/cytology
- Neurons/metabolism*
- Presynaptic Terminals/metabolism*
- Protein Transport/physiology
- R-SNARE Proteins
- Rats
- Recombinant Fusion Proteins/genetics
- Recombinant Fusion Proteins/metabolism
- Sequence Deletion
- Spinal Cord/cytology
- Spinal Cord/embryology
- Spinal Cord/metabolism*
- Zebrafish
- PubMed
- 15483121 Full text @ J. Neurosci.
Citation
Jontes, J.D., Emond, M.R., and Smith, S.J. (2004) In vivo trafficking and targeting of N-cadherin to nascent presynaptic terminals. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 24(41):9027-9034.
Abstract
N-cadherin is a prominent component of developing and mature synapses, yet very little is known about its trafficking within neurons. To investigate N-cadherin dynamics in developing axons, we used in vivo two-photon time-lapse microscopy of N-cadherin--green fluorescent protein (Ncad-GFP), which was expressed in Rohon-Beard neurons of the embryonic zebrafish spinal cord. Ncad-GFP was present as either stable accumulations or highly mobile transport packets. The mobile transport packets were of two types: tubulovesicular structures that moved preferentially in the anterograde direction and discrete-punctate structures that exhibited bidirectional movement. Stable puncta of Ncad-GFP accumulated in the wake of the growth cone with a time course. Colocalization of Ncad-GFP puncta with synaptic markers suggests that N-cadherin is a very early component of nascent synapses. Expression of deletion mutants revealed a potential role of the extracellular domain in appropriate N-cadherin trafficking and targeting. These results are the first to characterize the trafficking of a synaptic cell-adhesion molecule in developing axons in vivo. In addition, we have begun to investigate the cell biology of N-cadherin trafficking and targeting in the context of an intact vertebrate embryo.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping