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119 Publications

Showing 11-20 of 119 results
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    05/29/23 | Mapping memories: pulse-chase labeling reveals AMPA receptor dynamics during memory formation.
    Doyeon Kim , Pojeong Park , Xiuyuan Li , J. David Wong Campos , He Tian , Eric M. Moult , Jonathan B. Grimm , Luke Lavis , Adam E. Cohen
    bioRxiv. 2023 May 29:. doi: 10.1101/2023.05.26.541296

    A tool to map changes in synaptic strength during a defined time window could provide powerful insights into the mechanisms governing learning and memory. We developed a technique, Extracellular Protein Surface Labeling in Neurons (EPSILON), to map α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor (AMPAR) insertion in vivo by pulse-chase labeling of surface AMPARs with membrane-impermeable dyes. This approach allows for single-synapse resolution maps of plasticity in genetically targeted neurons during memory formation. We investigated the relationship between synapse-level and cell-level memory encodings by mapping synaptic plasticity and cFos expression in hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cells upon contextual fear conditioning (CFC). We observed a strong correlation between synaptic plasticity and cFos expression, suggesting a synaptic mechanism for the association of cFos expression with memory engrams. The EPSILON technique is a useful tool for mapping synaptic plasticity and may be extended to investigate trafficking of other transmembrane proteins.

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    05/26/23 | Voltage dynamics of dendritic integration and back-propagation in vivo
    J. David Wong-Campos , Pojeong Park , Hunter Davis , Yitong Qi , He Tian , Daniel G. Itkis , Doyeon Kim , Sarah E. Plutkis , Luke Lavis , Adam E. Cohen
    bioRxiv. 2023 May 26:. doi: 10.1101/2023.05.25.542363

    Neurons integrate synaptic inputs within their dendrites and produce spiking outputs, which then propagate down the axon and back into the dendrites where they contribute to plasticity. Mapping the voltage dynamics in dendritic arbors of live animals is crucial for understanding neuronal computation and plasticity rules. Here we combine patterned channelrhodopsin activation with dual-plane structured illumination voltage imaging, for simultaneous perturbation and monitoring of dendritic and somatic voltage in Layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons in anesthetized and awake mice. We examined the integration of synaptic inputs and compared the dynamics of optogenetically evoked, spontaneous, and sensory-evoked back-propagating action potentials (bAPs). Our measurements revealed a broadly shared membrane voltage throughout the dendritic arbor, and few signatures of electrical compartmentalization among synaptic inputs. However, we observed spike rate acceleration-dependent propagation of bAPs into distal dendrites. We propose that this dendritic filtering of bAPs may play a critical role in activity-dependent plasticity.

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    05/17/23 | Sensitivity optimization of a rhodopsin-based fluorescent voltage indicator
    Abdelfattah AS, Zheng J, Singh A, Huang Y, Reep D, Tsegaye G, Tsang A, Arthur BJ, Rehorova M, Olson CV, Shuai Y, Zhang L, Fu T, Milkie DE, Moya MV, Weber TD, Lemire AL, Baker CA, Falco N, Zheng Q, Grimm JB, Yip MC, Walpita D, Chase M, Campagnola L, Murphy GJ, Wong AM, Forest CR, Mertz J, Economo MN, Turner GC, Koyama M, Lin B, Betzig E, Novak O, Lavis LD, Svoboda K, Korff W, Chen T, Schreiter ER, Hasseman JP, Kolb I
    Neuron. 2023 May 17;111(10):1547-1563. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.03.009

    The ability to optically image cellular transmembrane voltages at millisecond-timescale resolutions can offer unprecedented insight into the function of living brains in behaving animals. Here, we present a point mutation that increases the sensitivity of Ace2 opsin-based voltage indicators. We use the mutation to develop Voltron2, an improved chemigeneic voltage indicator that has a 65% higher sensitivity to single APs and 3-fold higher sensitivity to subthreshold potentials than Voltron. Voltron2 retained the sub-millisecond kinetics and photostability of its predecessor, although with lower baseline fluorescence. In multiple in vitro and in vivo comparisons with its predecessor across multiple species, we found Voltron2 to be more sensitive to APs and subthreshold fluctuations. Finally, we used Voltron2 to study and evaluate the possible mechanisms of interneuron synchronization in the mouse hippocampus. Overall, we have discovered a generalizable mutation that significantly increases the sensitivity of Ace2 rhodopsin-based sensors, improving their voltage reporting capability.

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    05/01/23 | Time-tagged ticker tapes for intracellular recordings.
    Lin D, Li X, Moult E, Park P, Tang B, Shen H, Grimm JB, Falco N, Jia BZ, Baker D, Lavis LD, Cohen AE
    Nature Biotechnology. 2023 May 01;41(5):631-9. doi: 10.1038/s41587-022-01524-7

    Recording transcriptional histories of a cell would enable deeper understanding of cellular developmental trajectories and responses to external perturbations. Here we describe an engineered protein fiber that incorporates diverse fluorescent marks during its growth to store a ticker tape-like history. An embedded HaloTag reporter incorporates user-supplied dyes, leading to colored stripes that map the growth of each individual fiber to wall clock time. A co-expressed eGFP tag driven by a promoter of interest records a history of transcriptional activation. High-resolution multi-spectral imaging on fixed samples reads the cellular histories, and interpolation of eGFP marks relative to HaloTag timestamps provides accurate absolute timing. We demonstrate recordings of doxycycline-induced transcription in HEK cells and cFos promoter activation in cultured neurons, with a single-cell absolute accuracy of 30-40 minutes over a 12-hour recording. The protein-based ticker tape design we present here could be generalized to achieve massively parallel single-cell recordings of diverse physiological modalities.

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    03/30/23 | Sequence and Structural Motifs Controlling the Broad Substrate Specificity of the Mycobacterial Hormone-Sensitive Lipase LipN
    Schemenauer DE, Pool EH, Raynor SN, Ruiz GP, Goehring LM, Koelper AJ, Wilson MA, Durand AJ, Kourtoglou EC, Larsen EM, Lavis LD, Esteb JJ, Hoops GC, Johnson RJ
    ACS Omega. 2023 Mar 30;8(14):13252 - 13264. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c0053410.1021/acsomega.3c00534.s001

    Mycobacterium tuberculosis has a complex life cycle transitioning between active and dormant growth states depending on environmental conditions. LipN (Rv2970c) is a conserved mycobacterial serine hydrolase with regulated catalytic activity at the interface between active and dormant growth conditions. LipN also catalyzes the xenobiotic degradation of a tertiary ester substrate and contains multiple conserved motifs connected with the ability to catalyze the hydrolysis of difficult tertiary ester substrates. Herein, we expanded a library of fluorogenic ester substrates to include more tertiary and constrained esters and screened 33 fluorogenic substrates for activation by LipN, identifying its unique substrate signature. LipN preferred short, unbranched ester substrates, but had its second highest activity against a heteroaromatic five-membered oxazole ester. Oxazole esters are present in multiple mycobacterial serine hydrolase inhibitors but have not been tested widely as ester substrates. Combined structural modeling, kinetic measurements, and substitutional analysis of LipN showcased a fairly rigid binding pocket preorganized for catalysis of short ester substrates. Substitution of diverse amino acids across the binding pocket significantly impacted the folded stability and catalytic activity of LipN with two conserved motifs (HGGGW and GDSAG) playing interconnected, multidimensional roles in regulating its substrate specificity. Together this detailed substrate specificity profile of LipN illustrates the complex interplay between structure and function in mycobacterial hormone-sensitive lipase homologues and indicates oxazole esters as promising inhibitor and substrate scaffolds for mycobacterial hydrolases.

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    11/13/22 | Brain-wide measurement of protein turnover with high spatial and temporal resolution
    Boaz Mohar , Jonathan B. Grimm , Ronak Patel , Timothy A. Brown , Paul Tillberg , Luke D. Lavis , Nelson Spruston , Karel Svoboda
    bioRxiv. 2022 Nov 13:. doi: 10.1101/2022.11.12.516226

    Cells regulate function by synthesizing and degrading proteins. This turnover ranges from minutes to weeks, as it varies across proteins, cellular compartments, cell types, and tissues. Current methods for tracking protein turnover lack the spatial and temporal resolution needed to investigate these processes, especially in the intact brain, which presents unique challenges. We describe a pulse-chase method (DELTA) for measuring protein turnover with high spatial and temporal resolution throughout the body, including the brain. DELTA relies on rapid covalent capture by HaloTag of fluorophores that were optimized for bioavailability in vivo. The nuclear protein MeCP2 showed brain region- and cell type-specific turnover. The synaptic protein PSD95 was destabilized in specific brain regions by behavioral enrichment. A novel variant of expansion microscopy further facilitated turnover measurements at individual synapses. DELTA enables studies of adaptive and maladaptive plasticity in brain-wide neural circuits.

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    09/01/22 | A serotonergic axon-cilium synapse drives nuclear signaling to maintain chromatin accessibility
    Shu-Hsien Sheu , Srigokul Upadhyayula , Vincent Dupuy , Song Pang , Andrew L. Lemire , Deepika Walpita , H. Amalia Pasolli , Fei Deng , Jinxia Wan , Lihua Wang , Justin Houser , Silvia Sanchez-Martinez , Sebastian E. Brauchi , Sambashiva Banala , Melanie Freeman , C. Shan Xu , Tom Kirchhausen , Harald F. Hess , Luke Lavis , Yu-Long Li , Séverine Chaumont-Dubel , David E. Clapham
    Cell. 2022 Sep 01;185(18):3390-3407. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.07.026

    Chemical synapses between axons and dendrites mediate much of the brain’s intercellular communication. Here we describe a new kind of synapse – the axo-ciliary synapse - between axons and primary cilia. By employing enhanced focused ion beam – scanning electron microscopy on samples with optimally preserved ultrastructure, we discovered synapses between the serotonergic axons arising from the brainstem, and the primary cilia of hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons. Functionally, these cilia are enriched in a ciliary-restricted serotonin receptor, 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 6 (HTR6), whose mutation is associated with learning and memory defects. Using a newly developed cilia-targeted serotonin sensor, we show that optogenetic stimulation of serotonergic axons results in serotonin release onto cilia. Ciliary HTR6 stimulation activates a non-canonical Gαq/11-RhoA pathway. Ablation of this pathway results in nuclear actin and chromatin accessibility changes in CA1 pyramidal neurons. Axo-ciliary synapses serve as a distinct mechanism for neuromodulators to program neuron transcription through privileged access to the nuclear compartment.

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    07/08/22 | Melding Synthetic Molecules and Genetically Encoded Proteins to Forge New Tools for Neuroscience.
    Kumar P, Lavis LD
    Annual Review Neuroscience. 2022 Jul 08;45:131-150. doi: 10.1146/annurev-neuro-110520-030031

    Unraveling the complexity of the brain requires sophisticated methods to probe and perturb neurobiological processes with high spatiotemporal control. The field of chemical biology has produced general strategies to combine the molecular specificity of small-molecule tools with the cellular specificity of genetically encoded reagents. Here, we survey the application, refinement, and extension of these hybrid small-molecule:protein methods to problems in neuroscience, which yields powerful reagents to precisely measure and manipulate neural systems.

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    07/03/22 | Multifunctional fluorophores for live-cell imaging and affinity capture of proteins
    Kumar P, Jason D. Vevea , Edwin R. Chapman , Luke D. Lavis
    bioRxiv. 2022 Jul 03:. doi: 10.1101/2022.07.02.498544

    The development of enzyme-based self-labeling tags allow the labeling of proteins in living cells with synthetic small-molecules. Use of a fluorophore-containing ligand enables the visualization of protein location inside cells using fluorescence microscopy. Alternatively, deployment of a biotin-containing ligand allows purification of tagged protein using affinity resins. Despite these various applications of self-labeling tags, most ligands serve a single purpose. Here, we describe self-labeling tag ligands that allow both visualization and subsequent capture of a protein. A key design principle is exploiting the chemical properties and size of a rhodamine fluorophore to optimize cell-permeability of the ligand and the capture efficiency of the biotin conjugate. This work generates useful “multifunctional” fluorophores with generalizable design principles that will allow the construction of new tools for biology.

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    07/01/22 | Kinetic principles underlying pioneer function of GAGA transcription factor in live cells.
    Tang X, Li T, Liu S, Wisniewski J, Zheng Q, Rong Y, Lavis LD, Wu C
    Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. 2022 Jul 01;29(7):665-676. doi: 10.1038/s41594-022-00800-z

    How pioneer factors interface with chromatin to promote accessibility for transcription control is poorly understood in vivo. Here, we directly visualize chromatin association by the prototypical GAGA pioneer factor (GAF) in live Drosophila hemocytes. Single-particle tracking reveals that most GAF is chromatin bound, with a stable-binding fraction showing nucleosome-like confinement residing on chromatin for more than 2 min, far longer than the dynamic range of most transcription factors. These kinetic properties require the full complement of GAF's DNA-binding, multimerization and intrinsically disordered domains, and are autonomous from recruited chromatin remodelers NURF and PBAP, whose activities primarily benefit GAF's neighbors such as Heat Shock Factor. Evaluation of GAF kinetics together with its endogenous abundance indicates that, despite on-off dynamics, GAF constitutively and fully occupies major chromatin targets, thereby providing a temporal mechanism that sustains open chromatin for transcriptional responses to homeostatic, environmental and developmental signals.

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