BackgroundDeveloping retinas display retinal waves, the patterned spontaneous activity essential for circuit refinement. During the first postnatal week in rodents, retinal waves are mediated by synaptic transmission between starburst amacrine cells (SACs) and retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). The neuromodulator adenosine is essential for the generation of retinal waves. However, the cellular basis underlying adenosine's regulation of retinal waves remains elusive. Here, we investigated whether and how the adenosine A2A receptor (A2AR) regulates retinal waves and whether A2AR regulation of retinal waves acts via presynaptic SACs.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe showed that A2AR was expressed in the inner plexiform layer and ganglion cell layer of the developing rat retina. Knockdown of A2AR decreased the frequency of spontaneous Ca2+ transients, suggesting that endogenous A2AR may up-regulate wave frequency. To investigate whether A2AR acts via presynaptic SACs, we targeted gene expression to SACs by the metabotropic glutamate receptor type II promoter. Ca2+ transient frequency was increased by expressing wild-type A2AR (A2AR-WT) in SACs, suggesting that A2AR may up-regulate retinal waves via presynaptic SACs. Subsequent patch-clamp recordings on RGCs revealed that presynaptic A2AR-WT increased the frequency of wave-associated postsynaptic currents (PSCs) or depolarizations compared to the control, without changing the RGC's excitability, membrane potentials, or PSC charge. These findings suggest that presynaptic A2AR may not affect the membrane properties of postsynaptic RGCs. In contrast, by expressing the C-terminal truncated A2AR mutant (A2AR-ΔC) in SACs, the wave frequency was reduced compared to the A2AR-WT, but was similar to the control, suggesting that the full-length A2AR in SACs is required for A2AR up-regulation of retinal waves.Conclusions/SignificanceA2AR up-regulates the frequency of retinal waves via presynaptic SACs, requiring its full-length protein structure. Thus, by coupling with the downstream intracellular signaling, A2AR may have a great capacity to modulate patterned spontaneous activity during neural circuit refinement.
During the first postnatal week in rodents, cholinergic retinal waves initiate in starburst amacrine cells (SACs), propagating to retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and visual centers, essential for visual circuit refinement. By modulating exocytosis in SACs, dynamic changes in the protein kinase A (PKA) activity can regulate the spatiotemporal patterns of cholinergic waves. Previously, cysteine string protein-α (CSPα) is found to interact with the core exocytotic machinery by PKA-mediated phosphorylation at serine 10 (S10). However, whether PKA-mediated CSPα phosphorylation may regulate cholinergic waves via SACs remains unknown. Here, we examined how CSPα phosphorylation in SACs regulates cholinergic waves. First, we identified that CSPα1 is the major isoform in developing rat SACs and the inner plexiform layer during the first postnatal week. Using SAC-specific expression, we found that the CSPα1-PKA-phosphodeficient mutant (CSP-S10A) decreased wave frequency, but did not alter the wave spatial correlation compared to control, wild-type CSPα1 (CSP-WT), or two PKA-phosphomimetic mutants (CSP-S10D and CSP-S10E). These suggest that CSPα-S10 phosphodeficiency in SACs dampens the frequency of cholinergic waves. Moreover, the level of phospho-PKA substrates was significantly reduced in SACs overexpressing CSP-S10A compared to control or CSP-WT, suggesting that the dampened wave frequency is correlated with the decreased PKA activity. Further, compared to control or CSP-WT, CSP-S10A in SACs reduced the periodicity of wave-associated postsynaptic currents (PSCs) in neighboring RGCs, suggesting that these RGCs received the weakened synaptic inputs from SACs overexpressing CSP-S10A. Finally, CSP-S10A in SACs decreased the PSC amplitude and the slope to peak PSC compared to control or CSP-WT, suggesting that CSPα-S10 phosphodeficiency may dampen the speed of the SAC-RGC transmission. Thus, via PKA-mediated phosphorylation, CSPα in SACs may facilitate the SAC-RGC transmission, contributing to the robust frequency of cholinergic waves.
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