Loss of neuropeptidergic regulation of cholinergic transmission induces homeostatic compensation in muscle cells to preserve synaptic strength
Fig 2
Pro-protein convertases AEX-5 and EGL-3 are required for neuropeptidergic signaling at the NMJ.
(A, B) Measurements of body length induced by muscular ChR2 activation using 0.1 mW/mm2 blue light stimulation. Mean ± SEM and group data for time period during illumination. Single mutants aex-5(sa23) (n = 41), bli-4(e937) (n = 23), kpc-1(gk8) (n = 31), egl-3(gk238) (n = 32), and unc-31(n1304) (n = 58) were compared to wt (n = 60). (C, D) as in (A, B) for mutants aex-5 (n = 12), egl-3 (n = 15), unc-31 (n = 22), and aex-5; egl-3 (n = 13) doubles, were compared to wt (n = 21). Note that the same wt control data was used as in panel A. (E–H) Measurements of body length induced by muscular ChR2 activation using 65 µW/mm2 blue light stimulation. aex-5 (E, F) and egl-3 (G, H) rescue were performed by specifically expressing AEX-5 and EGL-3 in cholinergic and GABAergic neurons respectively. Animal number tested in E, F: n = 35, 24, 14, 24, and in G, H: n = 40, 45, 27, 29 from left to right, respectively. In each panel, the blue bar indicates the 5–15 s blue light illumination. The data in panels B, D, F, and H represent the mean values over the entire illumination period shown in panels A, C, E, and G, respectively. All data are presented as mean ± SEM. Statistical significance for multiple-group datasets comparison was determined using one-way ANOVA with Tukey correction. *, **, and **** indicate p < 0.05, p < 0.01, and p < 0.0001, respectively. Numerical data can be found in S2 Data.