The gating properties of Drosophila NMJ glutamate receptors and their dependence on Neto

Tae Hee Han; Rosario Vicidomini; Cathy Isaura Ramos; Mark L Mayer; Mihaela Serpe

doi:10.1113/JP287331

The gating properties of Drosophila NMJ glutamate receptors and their dependence on Neto

J Physiol. 2024 Nov 27. doi: 10.1113/JP287331. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Tae Hee Han¹, Rosario Vicidomini¹, Cathy Isaura Ramos^{1

2}, Mark L Mayer³, Mihaela Serpe¹

Affiliations

¹ Section on Cellular Communication, Eunice Kennedy Shiver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA.
² Present address: The Institute of Functional Genomics of Lyon, Lyon, France.
³ National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA.

PMID: 39602131
DOI: 10.1113/JP287331

Abstract

The Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is a powerful genetic system that has revealed numerous conserved mechanisms for synapse development and homeostasis. The fly NMJ uses glutamate as the excitatory neurotransmitter and relies on kainate-type glutamate receptors and their auxiliary protein Neto for synapse assembly and function. However, despite decades of study, the reconstitution of NMJ glutamate receptors using heterologous systems has been achieved only recently, and there are no reports on the gating properties for the recombinant receptors. Here, using outside-out, patch clamp recordings and fast ligand application, we examine for the first time the biophysical properties of native type-A and type-B NMJ receptors in complexes with either Neto-α or Neto-β and compare them with recombinant receptors expressed in HEK293T cells. We found that type-A and type-B receptors have strikingly different gating properties that are further modulated by Neto-α and Neto-β. We captured single-channel events and revealed major differences between type-A and type-B receptors and also between Neto splice variants. Surprisingly, we found that deactivation is extremely fast and that the decay of synaptic currents resembles the rate of ionotropic glutamate receptor (iGluR) desensitization. The functional analyses of recombinant iGluRs that we report here should greatly facilitate the interpretation of compound in vivo phenotypes of mutant animals. KEY POINTS: We report the reconstitution of Drosophila neuromuscular junction ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) with Neto splice forms. Using outside-out patches and fast ligand application, we examine the deactivation and desensitization of the four iGluR/Neto complexes found in vivo. Expression of functional channels is absolutely dependent on Neto. Single-channel recordings revealed different lifetimes for different receptor complexes. The decay of synaptic currents is controlled by desensitization.

Keywords: Drosophila iGluRs; Neto; gating properties; neuromuscular junction.

Abstract

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