The non-neuronal syntaxin SYN-1 regulates defecation behavior and neural activity in C. elegans through interaction with the Munc13-like protein AEX-1 |
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Authors: | Masahiro Yamashita Kouichi Iwasaki |
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Institution: | a Neuroscience Research Institute, AIST, Tsukuba Central 6, 1-1-1, Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8566, Japan b Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Science, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan c Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry, Institute for Neuroscience, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60611-3008, USA |
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Abstract: | We have previously shown that the AEX-1 protein, which is expressed in postsynaptic muscles, retrogradely regulates presynaptic neural activity at the Caenorhabditis elegans neuromuscular junctions. AEX-1 is similar to vertebrate Munc13-4 protein, suggesting a function for vesicle exocytosis from a kind of cells. Compared to emerging evidences of the role of Munc13 proteins in synaptic vesicle release, however, the precise mechanism for vesicle exocytosis by AEX-1 and Munc13-4 is little understood. Here we have identified SYN-1 as a candidate molecule of AEX-1-dependent vesicle exocytosis from non-neuronal cells. The syn-1 gene encodes a C. elegans syntaxin, which is distantly related to the neuronal syntaxin UNC-64. The syn-1 gene is predominantly expressed in non-neuronal tissues and genetically interacts with aex-1 for presynaptic activity. However, the two proteins did not interact physically in our yeast two-hybrid system and mutational SYN-1 did not bypass the requirement of AEX-1 for the behavioral defects in aex-1 mutants, whereas mutant UNC-64 does in unc-13 mutants. These results suggest that a novel molecular interaction between the AEX-1 and syntaxin may regulate vesicle exocytosis for retrograde signal release. |
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Keywords: | Vesicle exocytosis Syntaxin UNC-13 Retrograde signaling C elegans |
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