Neural circuit rewiring: insights from DD synapse remodeling

ABSTRACT

Nervous systems exhibit many forms of neuronal plasticity during growth, learning and memory consolidation, as well as in response to injury. Such plasticity can occur across entire nervous systems as with the case of insect metamorphosis, in individual classes of neurons, or even at the level of a single neuron. A striking example of neuronal plasticity in C. elegans is the synaptic rewiring of the GABAergic Dorsal D-type motor neurons during larval development, termed DD remodeling. DD remodeling entails multi-step coordination to concurrently eliminate pre-existing synapses and form new synapses on different neurites, without changing the overall morphology of the neuron. This mini-review focuses on recent advances in understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms driving DD remodeling.

KEYWORDS:

• CDK-5
• CED-3
• C. elegans
• dynamics
• DLK-1 MAPKKK
• HBL-1
• IRX-1
• kinesin
• lin-14
• microtubule
• OIG-1
• transcriptional regulation
• UNC-30
• UNC-55

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Acknowledgments

We thank members of our labs for their comments on the manuscript. Y.J. is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Funding

This work was supported by HHMI and an NIH grant (NINDS R01 035546 to Y. J.).