Abstract. The growth cone is responsible for axonal growth, where membrane expansion is most likely to occur. Several recent reports have suggested that presynaptic proteins are involved in this process; however, the molecular mechanism details are unclear. We suggest that by cleaving a presynaptic protein syntaxin, which is essential in targeting synaptic vesicles as a target SNAP receptor (t-SNARE), neurotoxin C1 of Clostridium botulinum causes growth cone collapse and inhibits axonal growth. Video-enhanced microscopic studies showed (a) that neurotoxin C1 selectively blocked the activity of the central domain (the vesiclerich region) at the initial stage, but not the lamellipodia in the growth cone; and (b) that large vacuole formation occurred probably through the fusion of smaller vesicles from the central domain to the most distal segments of the neurite. The total surface area of the accumulated vacuoles could explain the membrane expansion of normal neurite growth. The gradual disappearance of the surface labeling by FITC-WGA on the normal growth cone, suggesting membrane addition, was inhibited by neurotoxin C1. The experiments using the peptides derived from syntaxin, essential for interaction with VAMP or a-SNAP, supported the results using neurotoxin C1. Our results demonstrate that syntaxin is involved in axonal growth and indicate that syntaxin may participate directly in the membrane expansion that occurs in the central domain of the growth cone, probably through association with VAMP and SNAPs, in a SNARE-like way.T hE nerve growth cone is a special structure at the leading edge of the extending axon and is responsible for axonal guidance and elongation. The growth cone consists of two distinct domains: the peripheral (p_)l and the central (C-) domains. P-domain, a microfilamentrich region including filopodia and lamellipodia, is responsible for motility (Dailey and Bridgman, 1993); C-domain, a vesicle-rich region (Forscher et al., 1987;Dailey and Bridgman, 1993), is the site where membrane expansion for axonal growth is suggested to occur (Goldberg and Address correspondence to Michihiro Igarashi, Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Gunma University School of Medicine, Maebashi, Gunma 371, Portions of this work have appeared in abstract form (1995. Cell Struct. Funct. 20[Suppl.]:566a).1. Abbreviations used in this paper: C-domain, central domain; CNS, central nervous system; DPD, 2,2'-dipyridyl; DRG, dorsal root ganglion; P-domain, peripheral domain; SLO, streptolysin O; SNARE, SNAP receptor; VEC-DIC, video-enhanced contrast~lifferential interference contrast. Burmeister, 1986;Forscher et al., 1987;Pfenninger and Friedman, 1993). The growth cone alters its shape between active (advancing) and inactive (ceasing) forms in response to an appropriate (and inappropriate) stimulus for axonal growth (Kater and Mills, 1991;Schwab et al., 1993). An active growth cone is large with several filopodia, while an inactive one, known as a collapsed growth cone, is very small with few or no filo...

Myosin-Va is an actin-based processive motor that conveys intracellular cargoes. Synaptic vesicles are one of the most important cargoes for myosin-Va, but the role of mammalian myosin-Va in secretion is less clear than for its yeast homologue, Myo2p. In the current studies, we show that myosin-Va on synaptic vesicles interacts with syntaxin-1A, a t-SNARE involved in exocytosis, at or above 0.3 M Ca 2؉ . Interference with formation of the syntaxin-1A-myosin-Va complex reduces the exocytotic frequency in chromaffin cells. Surprisingly, the syntaxin-1A-binding site was not in the tail of myosin-Va but rather in the neck, a region that contains calmodulin-binding IQ-motifs. Furthermore, we found that syntaxin-1A binding by myosin-Va in the presence of Ca 2؉ depends on the release of calmodulin from the myosin-Va neck, allowing syntaxin-1A to occupy the vacant IQ-motif. Using an anti-myosin-Va neck antibody, which blocks this binding, we demonstrated that the step most important for the antibody's inhibitory activity is the late sustained phase, which is involved in supplying readily releasable vesicles. Our results demonstrate that the interaction between myosin-Va and syntaxin-1A is involved in exocytosis and suggest that the myosin-Va neck contributes not only to the large step size but also to the regulation of exocytosis by Ca 2؉ . INTRODUCTIONMyosin-V, a processive molecular motor, conveys vesicles and other organelles along F-actin (Mercer et al., 1991;Espreafico et al., 1992;Cheney et al., 1993;Reck-Peterson et al., 2000;Vale, 2003). This unconventional myosin is a member of the class-V myosins, which are expressed in all eukaryotic species from yeast to mammals (Reck-Peterson et al., 2000;Matsui, 2003;Vale, 2003). Myosin-V is a dimeric protein (Cheney et al., 1993). Each monomer is composed of a head region, a long neck domain containing six tandem IQ-motifs, and a tail region (Reck-Peterson et al., 2000). The head acts as a plus-end ATPase-dependent molecular motor to move myosin-V along F-actin (Reck-Peterson et al., 2000). The long neck region is thought to act as a lever arm to regulate the motor activity of the head and to maintain the large step size of myosin-V via bound light chains. In higher eukaryotes, the light chains consist mainly of calmodulin (CaM) bound to the IQ-motifs in the neck domain (Cheney et al., 1993;Vale, 2003). In addition, the globular tail of myosin-V interacts with membrane-bound vesicles. In these ways, myosin-V plays a central role in intracellular polarized transport (Reck-Peterson et al., 2000;Matsui, 2003;Vale, 2003).Among the three isoforms of myosin-V in higher vertebrates, myosin-Va is the most abundant, and it is highly enriched in the brain (Espreafico et al., 1992), particularly in the neurons (Tilelli et al., 2003). Several lines of evidence indicate that synaptic vesicles, which undergo the Ca 2ϩ -regulated exocytosis, are one of the most important cargoes for myosin-Va (Prekeris and Terrian, 1997;Bridgman, 1999;Tilelli et al., 2003). In addition, Myo2p, a yeast h...

Syntaxin 1A/HPC-1 is a key component of the exocytotic molecular machinery, namely, the soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein (SNAP) receptor mechanism. Although >10 syntaxin-binding proteins have been identified, they cannot completely explain the regulation of exocytosis. Thus, novel proteins may interact with syntaxin. Because exocytosis requires both Ca2+ and ATP, we searched for Ca2+/ATP-dependent syntaxin-binding proteins from the rat brain and discovered Ca2+/calmodulin-activated protein kinase II (CaMKII)-alpha. At Ca2+ concentrations of >10(-6) m, only autophosphorylated CaMKII bound to syntaxin. Bound CaMKII was released from syntaxin by EGTA or by phosphatase, indicating that the binding is reversible. CaMKII bound to the linker domain of syntaxin, unlike any other known syntaxin-binding proteins. CaMKII-syntaxin complexes were also detected in synaptosomes by immunoprecipitation, and when reconstituted in vitro, they recruited larger amounts of synaptotagmin and SNAP-25 than syntaxin alone. The microinjected CaMKII-binding domain of syntaxin specifically affected exocytosis in chromaffin cells and in neurons. These results indicate that the Ca2+/ATP-dependent binding of CaMKII to syntaxin is an important process in the regulation of exocytosis.

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Changes in synaptic density in various brain regions were assessed among different age groups of rats maintained in ordinary small cages, as determined by synaptophysin assay. The synaptophysin content in hippocampus decreases as early as in the adult stage. The most remarkable decrement occurs in occipital cortex. In other regions, synaptophysin contents decrease in senescence to 60-77% of the respective peak values during young and adult stages. The other rat group reared under enriched environment in a large cage until 30 months of age was examined for synaptic density, and was revealed to maintain the similar levels as in young, or even higher levels in frontal, temporal, entorhinal cortices and hippocampus. These results indicate that the synaptic density in cerebrum decreases in senescence and this decrease can be prevented by rearing under enriched environment.