Structural genomic variations represent a major driving force of evolution and a burst of large segmental gene duplications occurred in the human lineage during its separation from non-human primates. SRGAP2, a gene recently implicated in neocortical development, has undergone two human-specific duplications. Here we find that both duplications (SRGAP2B and SRGAP2C) are partial and encode a truncated F-BAR domain. SRGAP2C is expressed in the developing and adult human brain and dimerizes with ancestral SRGAP2 to inhibit its function. In the mouse neocortex, SRGAP2 promotes spine maturation and limits spine density. Expression of SRGAP2C phenocopies SRGAP2 deficiency. It underlies sustained radial migration and leads to the emergence of human-specific features, including neoteny during spine maturation and increased density of longer spines. These results suggest that inhibition of SRGAP2 function by its human-specific paralogs has contributed to the evolution of the human neocortex and plays an important role during human brain development.

In the spinal cord, most inhibitory synapses have a mixed glycine-GABA phenotype. Using a pharmacological approach, we report an NMDAR activity-dependent regulation of the mobility of GlyRs but not GABA(A)Rs at inhibitory synapses in cultured rat spinal cord neurons. The NMDAR-induced decrease in GlyR lateral diffusion was correlated with an increase in receptor cluster number and glycinergic mIPSC amplitude. Changes in GlyR diffusion properties occurred rapidly and before the changes in the number of synaptic receptors. Regulation of synaptic GlyR content occurred without change in the amount of gephyrin. Moreover, NMDAR-dependent regulation of GlyR lateral diffusion required calcium influx and calcium release from stores. Therefore, excitation may increase GlyR levels at synapses by a calcium-mediated increase in postsynaptic GlyR trapping involving regulation of receptor-scaffold interactions. This provides a mechanism for a rapid homeostatic regulation of the inhibitory glycinergic component at mixed glycine-GABA synapses in response to increased NMDA excitatory transmission.

Lateral diffusion of neurotransmitter receptors in and out of synapses has been postulated as a core mechanism for rapid changes in receptor number at synapses during plastic processes. In this study, we have used single particle tracking to investigate how changes in glycine receptor (GlyR) lateral diffusion properties might account for changes in receptor number at synapses after disruption of the cytoskeleton in dissociated spinal cord neurons. We found that pharmacological disruption of F-actin and microtubules decreased the amount of GlyR and gephyrin, the backbone of the inhibitory postsynaptic scaffold, at synapses. F-actin and microtubule disruption increased GlyR exchanges between the synaptic and extrasynaptic membranes and decreased receptor dwell time at synapses. GlyR lateral diffusion was predominantly controlled by microtubules in the extrasynaptic membrane and by actin at synapses. Both diffusion coefficients and confinement at synapses were affected after F-actin disruption. Our results indicate that receptor exchanges between the synaptic and extrasynaptic compartments depend on the properties of both the postsynaptic differentiation and the extrasynaptic membrane. Consequently, GlyR number at synapses may be rapidly modulated by the cytoskeleton through the regulation of lateral diffusion in the plasma membrane and of receptor stabilization at synapses.

The proper function of neural circuits requires spatially and temporally balanced development of excitatory and inhibitory synapses. However, the molecular mechanisms coordinating excitatory and inhibitory synaptogenesis remain unknown. Here we demonstrate that SRGAP2A and its human-specific paralog SRGAP2C co-regulate the development of excitatory and inhibitory synapses in cortical pyramidal neurons in vivo. SRGAP2A promotes synaptic maturation, and ultimately the synaptic accumulation of AMPA and GABAA receptors, by interacting with key components of both excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic scaffolds, Homer and Gephyrin. Furthermore, SRGAP2A limits the density of both types of synapses via its Rac1-GAP activity. SRGAP2C inhibits all identified functions of SRGAP2A, protracting the maturation and increasing the density of excitatory and inhibitory synapses. Our results uncover a molecular mechanism coordinating critical features of synaptic development and suggest that human-specific duplication of SRGAP2 might have contributed to the emergence of unique traits of human neurons while preserving the excitation/inhibition balance.