Title: Trafficking of synaptic proteins and tomosyn inhibits synaptic vesicle priming
Description: During the course of my dissertation I have studied the cell biology of both pre and postsynaptic elements. In looking at the presynaptic compartment I studied two proteins that hind to the SNARE protein Syntaxin=1, Tomosyn and UNC=18. In Chapter 2 of my dissertation we identify Tomosyn as a synaptic vesicle priming inhibitor. We show that Tomosyn tagged with GFP co-localizes with synaptic vesicles and is transported to synapses by the Kinesin KIF1A. The absence of Tomosyn leads to an increase in recruitment of the priming factor UNC-13 to synapses. Using both genetic and electrophysiological methods we showed that Tomosyn regulates the availability of the open form of Syntaxin-1. The regulation of Open-Syntaxin determines the number of primed vesicles at synapses, antagonizing the role of UNC-13. In Chapter 3 I examine how the Sect homologue UNC-18 regulates Synaptic Transmission. UNC=18 has been shown to have bath negative and positive effects on synaptic vesicle fusion. I demonstrate a possible role for LTNC-18 in promoting the antrograde trafficking of Syntaxin-1 to neuronal processes. Using anti-Syntaxin antibodies, I show that the Syntaxin-1 homologue in C. elegans, UNC-64, accumulates in neuronal cell bodies in unc-18 mutant animals, where it accumulates in the ER. Other synaptic proteins are not affected in unc-18 mutants and this effect is specific for Syntaxin-1. With the addition of N-Glycosylation sites to Syntaxin-1 I showed there is an increase in the amount of Syntaxin-1 in the ER of unc-18 mutants.

In Chapter 4, I characterize mutations in the C. elegans Rab2 ortholog (UNC= 108). The unc-108 (nu415) loss of function allele was isolated in a screen for mutants that altered the localization of the AMPA-type glutamate receptor GLR-1. In unc-108 (nu415) mutants there is an increase in the abundance of GLR-LGFP along the ventral nerve cord. The Unc phenotype of unc-108 (nu415) can be rescued by expression of UNC=108 under a specifically pan neuronal promoter. UNC=108 Rab2 is required in GLR-1::GFP expressing cells for proper receptor localization. Initial experiments looking at a GFP tagged marker for early and recycling endosomes suggests that Rab2 plays a role in post-endocytic trafficking.