Deficiencies in fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) are the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability, fragile X syndrome (FXS), with symptoms manifesting during infancy and early childhood. Using a mouse model for FXS, we found that Fmrp regulates the positioning of neurons in the cortical plate during embryonic development, affecting their multipolar-to-bipolar transition (MBT). We identified N-cadherin, which is crucial for MBT, as an Fmrp-regulated target in embryonic brain. Furthermore, spontaneous network activity and high-resolution brain imaging revealed defects in the establishment of neuronal networks at very early developmental stages, further confirmed by an unbalanced excitatory and inhibitory network. Finally, reintroduction of Fmrp or N-cadherin in the embryo normalized early postnatal neuron activity. Our findings highlight the critical role of Fmrp in the developing cerebral cortex and might explain some of the clinical features observed in patients with FXS, such as alterations in synaptic communication and neuronal network connectivity.

No abstract

A hallmark pattern of activity in developing nervous systems is spontaneous, synchronized network activity. Synchronized activity has been observed in intact spinal cord, brainstem, retina, cortex and dissociated neuronal culture preparations. During periods of spontaneous activity, neurons depolarize to fire single or bursts of action potentials, activating many ion channels. Depolarization activates voltage-gated calcium channels on dendrites and spines that mediate calcium influx. Highly synchronized electrical activity has been measured from local neuronal networks using field electrodes. This technique enables high temporal sampling rates but lower spatial resolution due to integrated read-out of multiple neurons at one electrode. Single cell resolution of neuronal activity is possible using patch-clamp electrophysiology on single neurons to measure firing activity. However, the ability to measure from a network is limited to the number of neurons patched simultaneously, and typically is only one or two neurons. The use of calcium-dependent fluorescent indicator dyes has enabled the measurement of synchronized activity across a network of cells. This technique gives both high spatial resolution and sufficient temporal sampling to record spontaneous activity of the developing network.

TRIM3 regulates synaptic γ-actin levels. TRIM3-deficient mice consequently have higher hippocampal spine densities, increased long-term potentiation, and enhanced contextual fear memory consolidation, indicating that temporal control of ACTG1 levels by TRIM3 is required to constrain hippocampal plasticity within physiological boundaries.

Developing networks in the immature nervous system and in cellular cultures are characterized by waves of synchronous activity in restricted clusters of cells. Synchronized activity in immature networks is proposed to regulate many different developmental processes, from neuron growth and cell migration, to the refinement of synapses, topographic maps, and the mature composition of ion channels. These emergent activity patterns are not present in all cells simultaneously within the network and more immature "silent" cells, potentially correlated with the presence of silent synapses, are prominent in different networks during early developmental periods. Many current network analyses for detection of synchronous cellular activity utilize activity-based pixel correlations to identify cellular-based regions of interest (ROIs) and coincident cell activity. However, using activity-based correlations, these methods first underestimate or ignore the inactive silent cells within the developing network and second, are difficult to apply within cell-dense regions commonly found in developing brain networks. In addition, previous methods may ignore ROIs within a network that shows transient activity patterns comprising both inactive and active periods. We developed analysis software to semi-automatically detect cells within developing neuronal networks that were imaged using calcium-sensitive reporter dyes. Using an iterative threshold, modulation of activity was tracked within individual cells across the network. The distribution pattern of both inactive and active, including synchronous cells, could be determined based on distance measures to neighboring cells and according to different anatomical layers.