Iwai Youichi, Hirota Yuki, Ozaki Koichi, Okano Hideyuki, Takeichi Masatoshi, Uemura Tadashi
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.
Mol Cell Neurosci. 2002 Mar;19(3):375-88. doi: 10.1006/mcne.2001.1081.
We studied roles of DN-cadherin, the Drosophila major neuronal cadherin, in neuronal connections in the visual system. In DN-cadherin mutants, axon terminals of a large subset of photoreceptor cells reached and associated with their target interneurons, but their characteristic spatial arrangement was disrupted as synaptogenesis proceeded. Although synapses were formed at contact sites between the axon terminals and target neurons, underlying cytoplasmic structures were not fully specialized at both pre- and postsynaptic terminals and synaptic vesicles appeared to accumulate at the presynapses. These results suggest that the cadherin adhesion system is required for interaction between pre- and postsynaptic terminals and for generation of the mature synaptic structures.
我们研究了果蝇主要神经元钙黏蛋白DN-钙黏蛋白在视觉系统神经元连接中的作用。在DN-钙黏蛋白突变体中，大部分光感受器细胞的轴突末端能够到达并与它们的靶中间神经元建立联系，但其特征性的空间排列在突触形成过程中受到破坏。虽然轴突末端与靶神经元的接触部位形成了突触，但突触前和突触后末端的潜在细胞质结构并未完全特化，并且突触小泡似乎在突触前积累。这些结果表明，钙黏蛋白黏附系统对于突触前和突触后末端之间的相互作用以及成熟突触结构的形成是必需的。
