Connaître la nature des empreintes mnésiques, comprendre les mécanismes présidant à la construction des souvenirs, leur stockage et leur rappel, en fait savoir comment nous apprenons et nous nous souvenons, cela reste une question majeure des recherches neurobiologiques. Mais il ne s'agit pas seulement de comprendre un mécanisme (celui de se souvenir) mais aussi, à la lumière de son fonctionnement, de développer des stratégies thérapeuthiques destinées à compenser des dysfonctionnements mnésiques qui surviennent avec l'âge, ou lors d'atteintes neuropathologiques. La mémoire est supposée émerger d'un ensemble de modifications au sein des circuits ou réseaux neuronaux qui traitent l'information environnementale. Etant donné la complexité du phénomène et du cerveau, la compréhension des mécanismes sous-jacents à la mémorisation nécessite plusieurs approches. Mon projet de recherche fut d'utiliser les progrès de la génétique et les capacités comportementales de la drosophile pour découvrir de nouveaux gènes impliqués dans des processus mnésiques à long terme. Grâce à un conditionnement olfactif de type pavlovien, associant odeur et chocs électriques, nous avons criblé une centaine de lignées transgéniques présentant une insertion d'un élément transposable dans un gène s'exprimant au niveau des corps pédonculés qui sont le centre anatomique de la mémoire olfactive. Ce crible a ainsi permis l'identification de deux nouvelles lignées mutantes pour la formation de la mémoire à long terme. Après avoir étudié les lignées P-Gal4, vérifié que l'anatomie des corps pédonculés ne présentait pas de défaut, nous avons identifié les gènes affectés, et construit des lignées exprimant des RNAi contre ces gènes. L'expression de ces RNAi uniquement à l'état adulte au niveau des corps pédonculés conduit à une chute spécifique de la mémoire à long terme. Les autres phases de mémoire sont normales. L'un de ces gènes est totalement inconnu et nécessitera d'autres études pour déterminer sa fonction biochimique et son fonctionnement. L'autre gène est debra, qui semble être impliqué dans des phénomènes d'ubiquitination.

There is much interest in the study of midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) neurons as their functions include the regulation of motor function, emotion and reward pathways. Furthermore the dysfunction of these neurons is implicated in a number of human disorders such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), addiction and schizophrenia. PD is characterised by the degeneration of mDA neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc), therefore, research into the specification and development of mDA neurons is of particular interest in relation to this disease. An understanding of the development of mDA neurons may lead to new methods of preventing their degeneration or potentially a human ES cell derived source of mDA neurons that could be used for transplantation in PD patients. Pitx3 is a bicoid-related homeodomain protein with an expression pattern restricted to the mDA neurons of the SNc and ventral tegmental area (VTA), within the central nervous system. To directly investigate a role for Pitx3 in mDA neuron development, I have analysed a line of transgenic mice with a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter under the control of the endogenous Pitx3 promoter. Use of the targeted GFP reporter as a midbrain dopaminergic lineage marker in the phenotypically normal heterozygous mice identified previously unrecognised ontogenetically distinct subpopulations of dopaminergic cells within the ventral midbrain. These subpopulations were detectable at E12.5 based on their temporal and topographical expression of Pitx3 and TH. Analysis of the Pitx3 null mice revealed that Pitx3 is required for the survival of a subset of nascent mDA neurons at the beginning of their terminal differentiation. The loss of mDA neurons via apoptosis continued throughout development resulting in a complete absence of SNc neurons whilst the VTA remained relatively intact in adult Pitx3 null mice. In addition, during embryonic development Pitx3 deficiency caused a loss of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) expression specifically in the SNc dopaminergic neurons. Analysis of chimeric mice made with Pitx3 null and Pitx3 heterozygous ES cells revealed that Pitx3 acts in a cell autonomous manner. These findings point to two roles for Pitx3 in SNc mDA neurons, one in their survival and the other in regulation of TH expression. Taken together, these studies suggest that the ontogenetically distinct subpopulations may provide the molecular basis for the specific dependence of substantia nigra DA neurons on Pitx3. In addition, to establish whether the subpopulations identified at E12.5 do form the SNc and VTA, respectively, a strategy to track the fate of the earliest Pitx3- expressing cells has been initiated. In order to achieve this I have created transgenic mice in which a tamoxifen inducible form of Cre recombinase is under the control of the endogenous Pitx3 promoter. These mice can be crossed with existing mice which contain a ubiquitously expressed Cre-inducible reporter, such as LacZ or GFP, to give a temporally and spatially restricted reporter expression.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Understanding how the human brain functions on a molecular and cellular level is nearly impossible with current technology and ethical considerations. Utilizing the small nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, and its innate behavioral responses to olfactory social cues, we can begin to unravel the mechanisms underlying social behavior. This is made possible given that innate behaviors are crucial for survival, and therefore hardwired into the genome of organisms. This allows for genetic-level analysis of neural circuitries driving behavior. Studying the neuronal mechanisms underlying C. elegans’ behavioral responses to social cues will not only assist in our overall understanding of how the brain perceives stimuli to enact a behavioral response at the cellular and molecular level, but also our understanding as to how the nervous system properly integrates information to enact social behavioral responses: mis-integration and social abnormalities are commonalities seen in many neuropsychiatric disorders, and these studies will provide fruitful insights into the defects observed in these disorders. Lastly, by comparing the perception of several different types of social chemicals, we can further our understanding of neural coding strategies for the various behaviors crucial for survival. Chapter One of this thesis orients the reader to social, innate behavior, and the usefulness of C. elegans as a tool for understanding behavioral coding. Chapter Two explores and establishes the required components of a socially aversive pheromone, providing insight into signaling evolution and co-option of biological machineries. Chapter Three examines how multiple, competing stimuli are integrated to modulate behavioral output, furthering our understanding of molecular and cellular integration and decision making within the nervous system. Chapter Four highlights the importance of predator pressure, and provides insights into circuit strategies of redundant and promiscuous networks of threat detection. Lastly, Chapter Five considers the implications of these findings as a whole, in the perspective of evolutionary strategies leading to neuronal coding of different behavioral outputs. Taken together, this dissertation aimed to fill the void in our understanding of social behavior neural circuitries, and how integration governed at the molecular and cellular level of the nervous system affects those behaviors.

Ethanol (EtOH) is a commonly used drug which exerts many of its effects by altering neurotransmission in the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system. Although there is little debate that EtOH acts to increase the activity of DA neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), and that this action is necessary for some of the reinforcing effects of EtOH, research in vitro has only been able to demonstrate an excitatory effect on VTA DA neurons in response to very high concentrations of EtOH. These concentrations, typically in the range of 50-100 mM, correspond to sedative or lethal levels for typical humans. Therefore, the significance of findings from in vitro experiments can be difficult to interpret. We sought to determine why high concentrations of EtOH are needed in vitro and whether this could be explained by simple experimental factors, including cytosolic washout from whole cell electrophysiological recordings; heterogeneity among VTA DA neurons, where previous studies may have inadvertently focused on an EtOH-insensitive population; or selection of animal population, where perhaps low EtOH response is characteristic in naïve, rather than EtOH-experienced, animals. To achieve this, we performed cell-attached recordings on a large number of midbrain DA neurons of EtOH-naïve and experienced mice. We report evidence for a highly EtOH-responsive, medially located population of VTA DA neurons. These neurons, found within the rostral linear and interfascicular nuclei and considered “atypical” in terms of physiological criteria ascribed to DA neurons, exhibited a concentration-dependent increase of firing activity in response to EtOH, with some neurons responsive to as little as 20 mM EtOH. In contrast, DA neurons in the lateral VTA and substantia nigra were either unresponsive or responded only to 100 mM EtOH. We then examined neuronal activity following adolescent binge-like alcohol drinking in mice, to determine whether EtOH experience drives increased EtOH sensitivity of DA neurons. We find that in medial VTA DA neurons, drinking experience greatly increased firing activity driven by subsequent exposure to EtOH itself, without altering other measures of intrinsic excitability. This enhanced sensitivity was no longer significant in the presence of glutamate receptor blockade. We attempted to further characterize the EtOH-sensitive, medially located VTA DA neurons by utilizing retrograde tracing to identify a population of nucleus accumbens medial shell-projecting neurons. We find that this population exhibits an increased sensitivity to 50 mM EtOH after adolescent drinking. As a result of these experiments, we have identified a previously uncharacterized, highly EtOH-responsive population of DA neurons in the medial VTA. This population demonstrates an excitatory response to 10 and 20 mM EtOH, concentrations which are more pharmacologically relevant than those typically tested in vitro. We further demonstrate evidence for experience-induced neural adaptations which result in enhanced sensitivity to EtOH in vitro. These adaptations are only apparent in medial VTA DA neurons, and this phenomenon only occurs in response to adolescent drinking. These data provide evidence for a novel form of plasticity in which neurons respond to a primary reinforcer, in this case EtOH, after drinking experience. These findings provide an anatomical and pharmacological distinction between DA neuron subpopulations that will facilitate future mechanistic studies on the actions of EtOH in the VTA.

How neurons choose appropriate synaptic partners to form functional neural circuits is not well understood. Two subfamilies of Drosophila immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF) cell surface proteins, Dprs (defective proboscis response) and DIPs (Dpr interacting proteins) are broadly expressed in the nervous system and involved in the development of neural circuits. A qualitative interactome developed from high-throughput experiments has shown that each DIP interacts with a unique set of Dpr proteins. Neurons with distinct synaptic specificities express distinct combinations of Dprs, while a subset of their synaptic partners express the complementary DIPs. These findings are consistent with the idea that the specificity of interactions between Dprs and DIPs help to define the synaptic connectivity of the neurons in which they are expressed. Thus, it is essential to fully understand interactions between members of these two protein families. Using surface plasmon resonance (SPR), we have generated a quantitative Dpr and DIP interactome, which contained several novel features. We determined the binding affinities of the majority of Dpr-DIP interactions, revealing binding groups that span a range of affinities and reflect DIP and Dpr phylogeny. Crystal structures of Dpr-DIP heterocomplexes were determined and used to design site-specific mutants that, along with SPR experiments, reveal the major determinants of Dpr-DIP binding specificity. Using analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC), we show that some Dpr and DIP family members form homophilic dimers as well. Multiple crystal structures of DIP homodimers reveal the molecular determinants of homophilic binding and structure-guided mutants along with AUC experiments further validated their mechanism of interaction. The existence of DIP and Dpr homodimers suggests the possibility of still-unknown mechanisms of Dprs and DIPs in neural circuit formation. Based on information derived from our crystal structures and biophysical experiments, we designed, produced, and tested Dpr and DIP proteins with altered binding properties. Many of the structural and biophysical studies described in this thesis were undertaken to produce tools to probe Dpr and DIP function in an in vivo setting. Parallel studies utilizing many of the mutant proteins described here (and other reagents that are not described here) are underway in the Zipursky lab, and are not described herein.

Our body is governed through a complex network of diverse set of synapses created by many different neurons, which extend throughout the body. A great progress has been made to monitor and modulate these cells using genetic methods in limited settings, while chemical approaches have not achieved comparable successful results. Yet given the versatility of chemical probes, it has been important to create platforms which would allow us to generate compounds with characteristics of neuronal targeting and modulation. In our effort to modulate neurons and their synapses, a platform of assays was developed to find agonists and modulators of the brain derived neurotrophic factor, BDNF, and its receptor, TrkB, which is a central signaling system for neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity. These assays were used to evaluate reported TrkB agonists and perform a high throughput screen. In addition, an alternative approach in the form of phage display targeting TrkB was employed, since TrkB proved to be a challenging target for identification of small molecule agonist or modulator. To visualize different parts as well as various types of neurons, two different platforms were developed. A diversity oriented fluorescent library coupled with high content screening provided an opportunity to identify probes that could specifically stain neurons and synapses. In the second approach a new phage display method was developed that could identify probes with the ability to bind to neuronal cell surface markers. The developed platforms that we developed have a great potential to generate promising probes for vast array of applications.

The mushroom body (MB) is the site of odor association learning in Drosophila.  In the canonical model, there are two types of reinforcing dopamine neurons (DANs): one set for rewarding unconditioned stimuli (US), and one responding to aversive US.  When DANs are activated together with an odor (the conditioned stimulus, or CS), plasticity is induced in the downstream output neurons (MBONs).  We have identified a DAN (V1) that surprisingly responds preferentially to odors, and responds weakly or not at all to various classical US.  In order to explore the relationship between V1 odor responses and the established roles of the MB, I characterized the responses of DAN V1, and probed its relationship to odor-driven behavior, associative conditioning, and activity in other MB compartments. These data show that V1 receives recurrent input from identified MBONs, contributes to the activity of an MBON that enhances alerting behavior, and that its odor responses are modulated by conditioning. We therefore present the study of the alpha2 compartment, which V1 innervates, as the dissection of an atypical compartment of the MB, one that acts as a hub by which various information from other compartments and brain areas is integrated in order to alter a behavioral response to odor. This work furthers our understanding of the MB not simply as an engine of classical learning, but as a system of diverse interconnected modules that allow coordinated fine control of behavior.