More than a pore: How voltage-gated calcium channels act on different levels of neuronal communication regulation.
ABSTRACT Voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs) represent key regulators of the calcium influx through the plasma membrane of excitable cells, like neurons. Activated by the depolarization of the membrane, the opening of VGCCs induces very transient and local changes in the intracellular calcium concentration, known as calcium nanodomains, that in turn trigger calcium-dependent signaling cascades and the release of chemical neurotransmitters. Based on their central importance as concierges of excitation-secretion coupling and therefore neuronal communication, VGCCs have been studied in multiple aspects of neuronal function and malfunction. However, studies on molecular interaction partners …
Biophysics of high density nanometer regions extracted from super-resolution single particle trajectories: application to voltage-gated calcium channels and phospholipids.
AbstractThe cellular membrane is very heterogenous and enriched with high-density regions forming microdomains, as revealed by single particle tracking experiments. However the organization of these regions remain unexplained. We determine here the biophysical properties of these regions, when described as a basin of attraction. We develop two methods to recover the dynamics and local potential wells (field of force and boundary). The first method is based on the local density of points distribution of trajectories, which differs inside and outside the wells. The second method focuses on recovering the drift field that is convergent inside wells and uses the transient field to determine the…
Transient Confinement of CaV2.1 Ca2+-Channel Splice Variants Shapes Synaptic Short-Term Plasticity
Summary The precision and reliability of synaptic information transfer depend on the molecular organization of voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs) within the presynaptic membrane. Alternative splicing of exon 47 affects the C-terminal structure of VGCCs and their affinity to intracellular partners and synaptic vesicles (SVs). We show that hippocampal synapses expressing VGCCs either with exon 47 (CaV2.1+47) or without (CaV2.1Δ47) differ in release probability and short-term plasticity. Tracking single channels revealed transient visits (∼100 ms) of presynaptic VGCCs in nanodomains (∼80 nm) that were controlled by neuronal network activity. Surprisingly, despite harboring prominent bindin…
Dynamic compartmentalization of calcium channel signalling in neurons.
Calcium fluxes through the neuronal membrane are strictly limited in time due to biophysical properties of voltage-gated and ligand-activated ion channels and receptors. Being embedded into the crowded dynamic environment of biological membranes, Ca2+-permeable receptors and channels undergo perpetual spatial rearrangement, which enables their temporary association and formation of transient signalling complexes. Thus, efficient calcium-mediated signal transduction requires mechanisms to support very precise spatiotemporal alignment of the calcium source and Ca2+-binding lipids and proteins in a highly dynamic environment. The mobility of calcium channels and calcium-sensing proteins themse…
Reconstructing wells from high density regions extracted from super-resolution single particle trajectories
AbstractLarge amount of super-resolution single particle trajectories has revealed that the cellular environment is enriched in heterogenous regions of high density, which remain unexplained. The biophysical properties of these regions are characterized by a drift and their extension (a basin of attraction) that can be estimated from an ensemble of trajectories. We develop here two statistical methods to recover the dynamics and local potential wells (field of force and boundary) using as a model a truncated Ornstein-Ulhenbeck process. The first method uses the empirical distribution of points, which differs inside and outside the potential well, while the second focuses on recovering the d…
Auxiliary α2δ1 and α2δ3 Subunits of Calcium Channels Drive Excitatory and Inhibitory Neuronal Network Development
VGCCs are multisubunit complexes that play a crucial role in neuronal signaling. Auxiliary α2δ subunits of VGCCs modulate trafficking and biophysical properties of the pore-forming α1 subunit and trigger excitatory synaptogenesis. Alterations in the expression level of α2δ subunits were implicated in several syndromes and diseases, including chronic neuropathic pain, autism, and epilepsy. However, the contribution of distinct α2δ subunits to excitatory/inhibitory imbalance and aberrant network connectivity characteristic for these pathologic conditions remains unclear. Here, we show that α2δ1 overexpression enhances spontaneous neuronal network activity in developing and mature cultures of …
SPtsAnalysis: a high-throughput super-resolution single particle trajectory analysis to reconstruct organelle dynamics and membrane re-organization
AbstractSuper-resolution imaging can generate thousands of single-particle trajectories. These data can potentially reconstruct subcellular organization and dynamics, as well as measure disease-linked changes. However, computational methods that can derive quantitative information from such massive datasets are currently lacking. Here we present data analysis and algorithms that are broadly applicable to reveal local binding and trafficking interactions and organization of dynamic sub-cellular sites. We applied this analysis to the endoplasmic reticulum and neuronal membrane. The method is based on spatio-temporal time window segmentation that explores data at multiple levels and detects th…