Before the onset of sensory transduction, developing neural circuits spontaneously generate correlated activity in distinct spatial and temporal patterns. During this period of patterned activity, sensory maps develop and initial coarse connections are refined, which are critical steps in the establishment of adult neural circuits. Over the last decade there has been substantial evidence that altering the pattern of spontaneous activity disrupts refinement, but the mechanistic understanding of this process remains incomplete. In this review, we discuss recent experimental and theoretical progress towards the process of activity-dependent refinement, focusing on circuits in the visual, auditory and motor systems. While many outstanding questions remain, the combination of several novel approaches have brought us closer to a comprehensive understanding of how complex neural circuits are established by patterned spontaneous activity during development.

Cellular debris created by developmental processes or injury must be cleared by phagocytic cells to maintain and repair tissues. Cutaneous injuries damage not only epidermal cells but also the axonal endings of somatosensory (touch-sensing) neurons, which must be repaired to restore the sensory function of the skin. Phagocytosis of neuronal debris is usually performed by macrophages or other blood-derived professional phagocytes, but we have found that epidermal cells phagocytose somatosensory axon debris in zebrafish. Live imaging revealed that epidermal cells rapidly internalize debris into dynamic phosphatidylinositol 3-monophosphate-positive phagosomes that mature into phagolysosomes using a pathway similar to that of professional phagocytes. Epidermal cells phagocytosed not only somatosensory axon debris but also debris created by injury to other peripheral axons that were mislocalized to the skin, neighboring skin cells, and macrophages. Together, these results identify vertebrate epidermal cells as broad-specificity phagocytes that likely contribute to neural repair and wound healing.

Neuron-glia interactions play a critical role in the maturation of neural circuits; however, little is known about the pathways that mediate their communication in the developing CNS. We investigated neuron-glia signaling in the developing retina, where we demonstrate that retinal waves reliably induce calcium transients in Müller glial cells (MCs). During cholinergic waves, MC calcium transients were blocked by muscarinic acetylcholine receptor antagonists, whereas during glutamatergic waves, MC calcium transients were inhibited by ionotropic glutamate receptor antagonists, indicating that the responsiveness of MCs changes to match the neurotransmitter used to support retinal waves. Using an optical glutamate sensor we show that the decline in MC calcium transients is caused by a reduction in the amount of glutamate reaching MCs. Together, these studies indicate that neurons and MCs exhibit correlated activity during a critical period of retinal maturation that is enabled by neurotransmitter spillover from retinal synapses.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.09590.001

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Firl A, Sack GS, Newman ZL, Tani H, Feller MB. Extrasynaptic glutamate and inhibitory neurotransmission modulate ganglion cell participation during glutamatergic retinal waves. J Neurophysiol 109: 1969 -1978, 2013. First published January 23, 2013 doi:10.1152/jn.00039.2013.-During the first 2 wk of mouse postnatal development, transient retinal circuits give rise to the spontaneous initiation and lateral propagation of depolarizations across the ganglion cell layer (GCL). Glutamatergic retinal waves occur during the second postnatal week, when GCL depolarizations are mediated by ionotropic glutamate receptors. Bipolar cells are the primary source of glutamate in the inner retina, indicating that the propagation of waves depends on their activation. Using the fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based optical sensor of glutamate FLII81E-1, we found that retinal waves are accompanied by a large transient increase in extrasynaptic glutamate throughout the inner plexiform layer. Using two-photon Ca 2ϩ imaging to record spontaneous Ca 2ϩ transients in large populations of cells, we found that despite this spatially diffuse source of depolarization, only a subset of neurons in the GCL and inner nuclear layer (INL) are robustly depolarized during retinal waves. Application of the glutamate transporter blocker dl-threo-␤-benzyloxyaspartate (25 M) led to a significant increase in cell participation in both layers, indicating that the concentration of extrasynaptic glutamate affects cell participation in both the INL and GCL. In contrast, blocking inhibitory transmission with the GABA A receptor antagonist gabazine and the glycine receptor antagonist strychnine increased cell participation in the GCL without significantly affecting the INL. These data indicate that during development, glutamate spillover provides a spatially diffuse source of depolarization, but that inhibitory circuits dictate which neurons within the GCL participate in retinal waves. retina; development; retinal waves; glutamate spillover; crossover inhibition