Previous studies on presynaptic protein function have largely focused on structured domains and their potential for scaffolding interactions. We surveyed eleven major synaptic proteins and observed that several of them contain extended stretches (>200 amino acids) of continuous intrinsically disordered sequence (caskin1, ELKS1, munc13-1, piccolo, RIM1, but not GRIP1, Lin-2/CASK, munc18-1, PSD95, syntenin-1, Akt signaling pathway X11α/mint1; data not shown). We propose that

intrinsically disordered protein domains might be more broadly used to control presynaptic assembly and function. Their properties are ideally suited as they accommodate a multitude of finely tuned protein-protein interactions and their Selleck KU-55933 dynamic regulation by post-translational modifications (Tompa, 2012). Work on the invertebrate SYD-1 mutants highlighted mislocalization of synaptic vesicles and active zone components (Hallam et al., 2002 and Owald et al., 2010). Our observations are consistent with an analogous function for mSYD1A in vesicle tethering at mammalian synapses in cultured neurons. However, in mSYD1AKO mice in vivo we did not observe a similarly severe dispersion of synaptic vesicles but instead uncovered a selective reduction in the docked

vesicle pool. More subtle alterations in the total synaptic vesicle pool may have been undetectable in our analysis but, clearly, the reduction in docked vesicles is more severe than any potential reduction in the total vesicle pool. Thus, the depletion of the docked pool cannot be explained by an overall reduction in synaptic vesicles at these synapses ( Marra et al., 2012). Expression of mSYD1B, the second mammalian SYD1 isoform, may partially compensate for the loss of mSYD1A and may attenuate effects on overall synaptic vesicle accumulation in mSYD1AKO synapses. through Regardless, the reduction in vesicle docking in mSYD1A single KO mice is severe and, thus, reveals a key function for a SYD1 protein in vivo. In cultured neurons, the mSYD1A IDD is

sufficient to promote synaptic vesicle clustering but it remains to be explored whether the IDD is sufficient to rescue the synaptic vesicle docking phenotype in mSYD1AKO hippocampus. The docked vesicle pool is strongly correlated to the number of highly fusion competent vesicles at synapses ( Schikorski and Stevens, 2001, Toonen et al., 2006 and Han et al., 2011). Thus, a reduction in the docked pool is consistent with the significant reduction in spontaneous fusion events observed upon mSYD1A loss-of-function in vitro and in vivo. Notably, we identified nsec1/munc18-1, a key factor implicated in vesicle docking ( Weimer et al., 2003 and Toonen et al., 2006), as binding partner of mSYD1A. Thus, mSYD1A provides a link between synaptogenic cell surface receptors such as LAR and the vesicle docking machinery of the presynaptic terminal.