Jürgen Klingauf

Molecular Anatomy of a Trafficking Organelle

Membrane traffic in eukaryotic cells involves transport of vesicles that bud from a donor compartment and fuse with an acceptor compartment. Common principles of budding and fusion have emerged, and many of the proteins involved in these events are now known. However, a detailed picture of an entire trafficking organelle is not yet available. Using synaptic vesicles as a model, we have now determined the protein and lipid composition; measured vesicle size, density, and mass; calculated the average protein and lipid mass per vesicle; and determined the copy number of more than a dozen major constituents. A model has been constructed that integrates all quantitative data and includes structural models of abundant proteins. Synaptic vesicles are dominated by proteins, possess a surprising diversity of trafficking proteins, and, with the exception of the V-ATPase that is present in only one to two copies, contain numerous copies of proteins essential for membrane traffic and neurotransmitter uptake.

Modeling buffered Ca2+ diffusion near the membrane: implications for secretion in neuroendocrine cells.

Secretion of catecholamines from neuroendocrine cells is relatively slow and it is likely that redistribution and buffering of Ca2+ is a major factor for delaying the response after a stimulus. In fact, in a recent study (Chow, R. H., J. Klingauf, and E. Neher. 1994. Time course of Ca2+ concentration triggering exocytosis in neuroendocrine cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 91:12765-12769) Chow et al. concluded that the concentration of free calcium ([Ca2+]i) at a release site peaks at < 10 microM during short-step depolarizations, and then decays to baseline over tens of milliseconds. To check whether such a time course is consistent with diffusion theory, we modeled buffered diffusion in the vicinity of a Ca2+ channel pore. Peak [Ca2+]i and the slow decay were well simulated when release-ready granules were randomly distributed within a regular grid of Ca2+ channels with mean interchannel distances of 300-600 nm. For such large spacings, however, the initial rise in [Ca2+]i was underestimated, suggesting that a small fraction of the release-ready pool (approximately 10%) experiences much higher [Ca2+]i, and thus might be colocalized with Ca2+ channels. A model that accommodates these findings then correctly predicts many recent observations, including the result that single action potentials evoke near-synchronous transmitter release with low quantal yield, whereas trains of action potentials lead to desynchronized release, but with severalfold increased quantal yield. The simulations emphasize the role of Ca2+ not only in triggering, but also in modulating the secretory response: buffers are locally depleted by residual Ca2+ of a preceding stimulus, so that a second pulse leads to a larger peak [Ca2+]i at the fusion sites.

Genetic Correction of a LRRK2 Mutation in Human iPSCs Links Parkinsonian Neurodegeneration to ERK-Dependent Changes in Gene Expression

The LRRK2 mutation G2019S is the most common genetic cause of Parkinsons disease (PD). To better understand the link between mutant LRRK2 and PD pathology, we derived induced pluripotent stem cells from PD patients harboring LRRK2 G2019S and then specifically corrected the mutant LRRK2 allele. We demonstrate that gene correction resulted in phenotypic rescue in differentiated neurons and uncovered expression changes associated with LRRK2 G2019S. We found that LRRK2 G2019S induced dysregulation of CPNE8, MAP7, UHRF2, ANXA1, and CADPS2. Knockdown experiments demonstrated that four of these genes contribute to dopaminergic neurodegeneration. LRRK2 G2019S induced increased extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK) phosphorylation. Transcriptional dysregulation of CADPS2, CPNE8, and UHRF2 was dependent on ERK activity. We show that multiple PD-associated phenotypes were ameliorated by inhibition of ERK. Therefore, our results provide mechanistic insight into the pathogenesis induced by mutant LRRK2 and pointers for the development of potential new therapeutics.

Postfusional regulation of cleft glutamate concentration during LTP at ‘silent synapses’

‘Silent synapses’ show responses from high-affinity NMDA receptors (NMDARs) but not low-affinity AMPA receptors (AMPARs), but gain AMPAR responses upon long-term potentiation (LTP). Using the rapidly reversible NMDAR antagonist l-AP5 to assess cleft glutamate concentration ([glu]cleft), we found that it peaked at ≪170 μM at silent neonatal synapses, but greatly increased after potentiation. Cyclothiazide (CTZ), a potentiator of AMPAR, revealed slowly rising AMPA EPSCs at silent synapses; LTP shortened their rise times. Thus, LTP at silent synapses increased rate-of-rise and peak amplitude of [glu]cleft. Release probability reported by NMDARs remained unchanged during LTP, implying that [glu]cleft increases arose from immediately presynaptic terminals. Our data suggest that changes in the dynamics of fusion-pore opening contribute to LTP.

Vesicular proteins exocytosed and subsequently retrieved by compensatory endocytosis are nonidentical

Upon exocytosis, synaptic vesicle proteins are released into the plasma membrane and have to be retrieved by compensatory endocytosis. When green fluorescent protein–labeled versions of the vesicle proteins synaptobrevin-2 and synaptotagmin-1 are overexpressed in rat hippocampal neurons, up to 30% are found on axonal membranes under resting conditions. To test whether and to what extent these plasma membrane–stranded proteins participate in exo-endocytic cycling, a new proteolytic approach was used to visualize the fate of newly exocytosed proteins separately from that of the plasma membrane–stranded ones. We found that both pools were mixed and that endocytosed vesicles were largely composed of previously stranded molecules. The degree of nonidentity of vesicular proteins exo- and endocytosed depended on stimulus duration. By using an antibody to the external domain of synaptotagmin-1, we estimated that under physiological conditions a few percent of vesicular proteins were located near the active zone, from where they were preferentially recycled upon stimulation.

Quantal Release of Serotonin

We have studied the origin of quantal variability for small synaptic vesicles (SSVs) and large dense-cored vesicles (LDCVs). As a model, we used serotonergic Retzius neurons of leech that allow for combined amperometrical and morphological analyses of quantal transmitter release. We find that the transmitter amount released by a SSV varies proportionally to the volume of the vesicle, suggesting that serotonin is stored at a constant intravesicular concentration and is completely discharged during exocytosis. Transmitter discharge from LDCVs shows a higher degree of variability than is expected from their size distribution, and bulk release from LDCVs is slower than release from SSVs. On average, differences in the transmitter amount released from SSVs and LDCVs are proportional to the size differences of the organelles, suggesting that transmitter is stored at similar concentrations in SSVs and LDCVs.

Dissecting docking and tethering of secretory vesicles at the target membrane

Secretory vesicles dock at their target in preparation for fusion. Using single‐vesicle total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy in chromaffin cells, we show that most approaching vesicles dock only transiently, but that some are captured by at least two different tethering modes, weak and strong. Both vesicle delivery and tethering depend on Munc18‐1, a known docking factor. By decreasing the amount of cortical actin by Latrunculin A application, morphological docking can be restored artificially in docking‐deficient munc18‐1 null cells, but neither strong tethering nor fusion, demonstrating that morphological docking is not sufficient for secretion. Deletion of the t‐SNARE and Munc18‐1 binding partner syntaxin, but not the v‐SNARE synaptobrevin/VAMP, also reduces strong tethering and fusion. We conclude that docking vesicles either undock immediately or are captured by minimal tethering machinery and converted in a munc18‐1/syntaxin‐dependent, strongly tethered, fusion‐competent state.

Mechanisms Determining the Time Course of Secretion in Neuroendocrine Cells

Transmitter release from chromaffin cells differs from that in synapses in that it persists for a longer time after Ca2+ entry has stopped. This prolonged secretion is not due to a delay between vesicle fusion and transmitter release, nor to slow detection of released substance: step increases in capacitance due to single vesicle fusion precede the release detected by amperometry by only a few milliseconds. The persistence of secretion after a depolarization is reduced by addition of mobile calcium buffer. This suggests that most of the delay is due to diffusion of Ca2+ between channels and release sites, implying that Ca2+ channels and secretory vesicles are not colocalized in chromaffin cells, in contrast to presynaptic active zones.

Synaptic vesicles recycling spontaneously and during activity belong to the same vesicle pool

Recently, it has been claimed that vesicles recycling spontaneously and during activity belong to different pools. Here we simultaneously measured, using spectrally separable styryl dyes, the release kinetics of vesicles recycled spontaneously or upon stimulation and the effects of the v-ATPase blocker folimycin on the frequency of miniature postsynaptic currents in rat hippocampal neurons. Our results provide evidence as to the identities of the vesicle pools recycling at rest and during stimulation.

Derivation and expansion using only small molecules of human neural progenitors for neurodegenerative disease modeling.

Phenotypic drug discovery requires billions of cells for high-throughput screening (HTS) campaigns. Because up to several million different small molecules will be tested in a single HTS campaign, even small variability within the cell populations for screening could easily invalidate an entire campaign. Neurodegenerative assays are particularly challenging because neurons are post-mitotic and cannot be expanded for implementation in HTS. Therefore, HTS for neuroprotective compounds requires a cell type that is robustly expandable and able to differentiate into all of the neuronal subtypes involved in disease pathogenesis. Here, we report the derivation and propagation using only small molecules of human neural progenitor cells (small molecule neural precursor cells; smNPCs). smNPCs are robust, exhibit immortal expansion, and do not require cumbersome manual culture and selection steps. We demonstrate that smNPCs have the potential to clonally and efficiently differentiate into neural tube lineages, including motor neurons (MNs) and midbrain dopaminergic neurons (mDANs) as well as neural crest lineages, including peripheral neurons and mesenchymal cells. These properties are so far only matched by pluripotent stem cells. Finally, to demonstrate the usefulness of smNPCs we show that mDANs differentiated from smNPCs with LRRK2 G2019S are more susceptible to apoptosis in the presence of oxidative stress compared to wild-type. Therefore, smNPCs are a powerful biological tool with properties that are optimal for large-scale disease modeling, phenotypic screening, and studies of early human development.