Genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) are powerful tools for systems neuroscience. Recent efforts in protein engineering have significantly increased the performance of GECIs. The state-of-the art single-wavelength GECI, GCaMP3, has been deployed in a number of model organisms and can reliably detect three or more action potentials (APs) in short bursts in several systems in vivo. Through protein structure determination, targeted mutagenesis, high-throughput screening, and a battery of in vitro assays, we have increased the dynamic range of GCaMP3 by several-fold, creating a family of “GCaMP5” sensors. We tested GCaMP5s in several systems: cultured neurons and astrocytes, mouse retina, and in vivo in Caenorhabditis chemosensory neurons, Drosophila larval neuromuscular junction and adult antennal lobe, zebrafish retina and tectum, and mouse visual cortex. Signal-to-noise ratio was improved by at least 2–3-fold. In the visual cortex, two GCaMP5 variants detected twice as many visual stimulus-responsive cells as GCaMP3. By combining in vivo imaging with electrophysiology we show that GCaMP5 fluorescence provides a more reliable measure of neuronal activity than its predecessor GCaMP3. GCaMP5 allows more sensitive detection of neural activity in vivo and may find widespread applications for cellular imaging in general.

The maintenance of synaptic transmission requires that vesicles be recycled after releasing neurotransmitter. Several modes of retrieval have been proposed to operate at small synaptic terminals of central neurons, including a fast "kiss-and-run" mechanism that releases neurotransmitter through a fusion pore. Using an improved fluorescent reporter comprising pHluorin fused to synaptophysin, we find that only a slow mode of endocytosis (tau = 15 s) operates at hippocampal synapses when vesicle fusion is triggered by a single nerve impulse or short burst. This retrieval mechanism is blocked by overexpression of the C-terminal fragment of AP180 or by knockdown of clathrin using RNAi, and it is associated with the movement of clathrin and vesicle proteins out of the synapse. These results indicate that clathrin-mediated endocytosis is the major, if not exclusive, mechanism of vesicle retrieval after physiological stimuli.

Genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) are powerful tools for systems neuroscience. Here we describe red, single-wavelength GECIs, “RCaMPs,” engineered from circular permutation of the thermostable red fluorescent protein mRuby. High-resolution crystal structures of mRuby, the red sensor RCaMP, and the recently published red GECI R-GECO1 give insight into the chromophore environments of the Ca2+-bound state of the sensors and the engineered protein domain interfaces of the different indicators. We characterized the biophysical properties and performance of RCaMP sensors in vitro and in vivo in Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila larvae, and larval zebrafish. Further, we demonstrate 2-color calcium imaging both within the same cell (registering mitochondrial and somatic [Ca2+]) and between two populations of cells: neurons and astrocytes. Finally, we perform integrated optogenetics experiments, wherein neural activation via channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) or a red-shifted variant, and activity imaging via RCaMP or GCaMP, are conducted simultaneously, with the ChR2/RCaMP pair providing independently addressable spectral channels. Using this paradigm, we measure calcium responses of naturalistic and ChR2-evoked muscle contractions in vivo in crawling C. elegans. We systematically compare the RCaMP sensors to R-GECO1, in terms of action potential-evoked fluorescence increases in neurons, photobleaching, and photoswitching. R-GECO1 displays higher Ca2+ affinity and larger dynamic range than RCaMP, but exhibits significant photoactivation with blue and green light, suggesting that integrated channelrhodopsin-based optogenetics using R-GECO1 may be subject to artifact. Finally, we create and test blue, cyan, and yellow variants engineered from GCaMP by rational design. This engineered set of chromatic variants facilitates new experiments in functional imaging and optogenetics.

Clathrin has an established function in the generation of vesicles that transfer membrane and proteins around the cell [1][2][3][4] . The formation of clathrin-coated vesicles occurs continuously in nondividing cells 5 , but is shut down during mitosis 6 , when clathrin concentrates at the spindle apparatus 7,8 . Here we show that clathrin stabilises fibres of the mitotic spindle to aid congression of chromsomes. Clathrin bound the spindle directlyvia the N-terminal domain of clathrin heavy chain (CHC). Depletion of CHC using RNA interference prolonged mitosis; kinetochore fibres were destabilised leading to defective congression of chromosomes to the metaphase plate and persistent activation of the spindle checkpoint. Normal mitosis was rescued by clathrin triskelia but not the N-terminal domain of CHC indicating that stabilisation of kinetochore fibres was dependent on the unique structure of clathrin. The importance of clathrin for normal mitosis may be relevant to understanding human cancers that involve gene fusions of clathrin heavy chain. Keywordsclathrin; mitosis; mitotic spindle; endocytosis; cancer; cell divisionThe subcellular distribution of clathrin depended on the phase of the cell cycle [7][8][9] ( Supplementary Fig. S1). During interphase, GFP-tagged clathrin light chain a (GFP-LCa) in NRK cells was associated with the Golgi apparatus and numerous puncta representing clathrin-coated pits and vesicles 5 (Fig. 1a). But during metaphase, clathrin localised to kinetochore fibres of the mitotic spindle 10 and possibly interpolar microtubules, but not astral microtubules (Fig. 1a,b). Localisation of clathrin to kinetochore fibres was confirmed by chilling cells for 10 min at 4 °C to selectively disassemble microtubules not associated with kinetochores 11 ; after this treatment, clathrin in metaphase cells remained bound to the kinetochore fibres, indicating that these microtubules were a potential site of clathrin function (Fig. 1b). Similar changes in the distribution of clathrin were observed using other variants of the light chain tagged by GFP or by immunocytochemistry using a monoclonal antibody specific for CHC ( Supplementary Figs. S2,3).Two observations indicated that clathrin bound the mitotic spindle rather than membrane localised to this region. First, none of the major adaptor proteins which allow clathrin to coat membranes (AP-1, AP-2 and AP-3) 2,3 were found at the spindle apparatus ( Supplementary Fig. S4a-c). To test whether clathrin at the spindle was associated with membranes at all, we indiscriminately labelled intracellular membranes by incubating cells with the styryl dyeCorrespondence and requests for materials should be addressed to S.J. R. (sjr51@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk Fig. S4d). In cells at metaphase, none of these membranes were found at the spindle (Fig. 1c).The localisation of clathrin to the mitotic spindle was examined at higher resolution using immunoelectron microscopy. CHC and α-tubulin were immunolabelled with 15 nm and 10 nm colloidal gold-conjugated reagents, re...

To analyze the rules that govern communication between eye and brain, visual responses were recorded from an intact salamander retina. Parallel observation of many retinal ganglion cells with a microelectrode array showed that nearby neurons often fired synchronously, with spike delays of less than 10 milliseconds. The frequency of such synchronous spikes exceeded the correlation expected from a shared visual stimulus up to 20-fold. Synchronous firing persisted under a variety of visual stimuli and accounted for the majority of action potentials recorded. Analysis of receptive fields showed that concerted spikes encoded information not carried by individual cells; they may represent symbols in a multineuronal code for vision.

1. The kinetics of exocytosis and endocytosis were studied in the giant synaptic terminal of depolarizing bipolar cells from the goldfish retina. Two techniques were applied: capacitance measurements of changes in membrane surface area, and fluorescence measurements of exocytosis using the membrane dye FM1_43. 2. Three phases of exocytosis occurred during maintained depolarization to 0 mV. The first component was complete within about 10 ms and involved a pool of 1200-1800 vesicles (with a total membrane area equivalent to about 1·6% of the surface of the terminal). The second component of exocytosis involved the release of about 4400 vesicles over 1 s. The third component of exocytosis was stimulated continuously at a rate of about 1000 vesicles s¢. 3. After short depolarizations (< 200 ms), neither the FM1_43 signal nor the capacitance signal continued to rise, indicating that exocytosis stopped rapidly after closure of Ca¥ channels. The fall in capacitance could therefore be used to monitor endocytosis independently of exocytosis. The capacitance measured after brief stimuli began to fall immediately, recovering to the pre-stimulus baseline with a rate constant of 0·8 s¢. 4. The amount of exocytosis measured using the capacitance and FM1_43 techniques was similar during the first 200 ms of depolarization, suggesting that the most rapidly released vesicles could be detected by either method. 5. After a few seconds of continuous stimulation, the net increase in membrane surface area reached a plateau at about 5%, even though continuous exocytosis occurred at a rate of 0·9 % s¢. Under these conditions of balanced exocytosis and endocytosis, the rate constant of endocytosis was about 0·2 s¢. The average rate of endocytosis during maintained depolarization was therefore considerably slower than the rate observed after a brief stimulus. 6. After longer depolarizations (> 500 ms), both the capacitance and FM1_43 signals continued to rise for periods of seconds after closure of Ca¥ channels. The continuation of exocytosis was correlated with a persistent increase in [Ca¥]é in the synaptic terminal, as indicated by the activation of a Ca¥-dependent conductance and measurements of [Ca¥]é using the fluorescent indicator furaptra. 7. The delayed fall in membrane capacitance after longer depolarizations occurred along a double exponential time course indicating the existence of two endocytic processes: fast endocytosis, with a rate constant of 0·8 s¢, and slow endocytosis, with a rate constant of 0·1 s¢. 8. Increasing the duration of depolarization caused an increase in the fraction of membrane recovered by slow endocytosis. After a 100 ms stimulus, all the membrane was recycled by fast endocytosis, but after a 5 s depolarization, about 50 % of the membrane was recycled by slow endocytosis. 9. These results demonstrate the existence of fast and slow endocytic mechanisms at a synapse and support the idea that prolonged stimulation leads to an increase in the amount of membrane retrieved by the slower route. The rise in cyt...

The mechanism of bulk membrane uptake at the synapse remains poorly defined, although exocytosis of synaptic vesicles is followed by compensatory membrane retrieval into both small vesicles and large cisternas or vacuoles. We investigated bulk retrieval in the presynaptic terminal of retinal bipolar cells. Fluorescence imaging of the membrane dye FM1-43 indicated that Ca2+-triggered exocytosis was followed by endocytosis into small vesicles and larger vacuoles that could be selectively labeled using large fluorescent dextrans. Disruption of actin filaments with cytochalasin D or latrunculin B inhibited the formation and transport of vacuoles, but exocytosis and endocytosis continued at normal rates. Bulk retrieval was linked to remodeling of the actin network, and both processes were inhibited by 2-(4-morpholinyl)-8-phenyl-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one, an inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase). The regulation of F-actin dynamics by Ca2+ and PI 3-kinase therefore played an important role in compensatory endocytosis at this synapse, but this role was confined to bulk membrane uptake. Capacitance measurements demonstrated that fast endocytosis and refilling of the rapidly releasable pool of vesicles were not dependent on F-actin or PI 3-kinase activity. The basic properties of bulk membrane retrieval at this synapse were very similar to macropinocytosis described in non-neural cells. Bulk retrieval did not play an essential role in maintaining the vesicle cycle during maintained stimulation, but we suggest that it may play a role in the structural plasticity of this synaptic terminal.

To image synaptic activity within neural circuits, we have tethered the genetically-encoded calcium indicator (GECI) GCaMP2 to synaptic vesicles by fusion to synaptophysin. The resulting reporter, SyGCaMP2, detects the electrical activity of neurons with two advantages over existing cytoplasmic GECIs: the locations of synapses are identified and the reporter displays a linear response over a wider range of spike frequencies. Simulations and experimental measurements indicate that linearity arises because SyGCaMP2 samples the brief calcium transient passing through the presynaptic compartment close to voltage-sensitive calcium channels rather than changes in bulk calcium concentration. In vivo imaging in zebrafish demonstrates that SyGCaMP2 can assess electrical activity in conventional synapses of spiking neurons in the optic tectum as well as graded voltage signals transmitted by ribbon synapses of retinal bipolar cells. Localizing a GECI to synaptic terminals provides a strategy for monitoring activity across large groups of neurons at the level of individual synapses.