GPCR voltage dependence controls neuronal plasticity and behavior

Eyal Rozenfeld, Merav Tauber, Yair Ben-Chaim, Moshe Parnas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) play a paramount role in diverse brain functions. Almost 20 years ago, GPCR activity was shown to be regulated by membrane potential in vitro, but whether the voltage dependence of GPCRs contributes to neuronal coding and behavioral output under physiological conditions in vivo has never been demonstrated. Here we show that muscarinic GPCR mediated neuronal potentiation in vivo is voltage dependent. This voltage dependent potentiation is abolished in mutant animals expressing a voltage independent receptor. Depolarization alone, without a muscarinic agonist, results in a nicotinic ionotropic receptor potentiation that is mediated by muscarinic receptor voltage dependency. Finally, muscarinic receptor voltage independence causes a strong behavioral effect of increased odor habituation. Together, this study identifies a physiological role for the voltage dependency of GPCRs by demonstrating crucial involvement of GPCR voltage dependence in neuronal plasticity and behavior. Thus, this study suggests that GPCR voltage dependency plays a role in many diverse neuronal functions including learning and memory.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7252
JournalNature Communications
Volume12
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors thank Dr. Robert J. Kittel and Dr. Moran Rubinstein for comments on the manuscript. We thank the Bloomington Stock Center and the Vienna Drosophila RNAi Center for fly strains. Molecular graphics and analyses were performed with UCSF Chimera, developed by the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics at the University of California, San Francisco, with support from NIH P41-GM103311. This work was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF 343/18, MP), the European Research Council (676844, MP), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (project number 408264519 to MP) and the Open University of Israel (Internal research grant, YBC).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

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