PARIS, an optogenetic method for functionally mapping gap junctions.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 30638447.
- Also identified by DOI 10.7554/eLife.43366 and PMC identifier 6396999.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Cell-cell communication via gap junctions regulates a wide range of physiological processes by enabling the direct intercellular electrical and chemical coupling. However, the in vivo distribution and function of gap junctions remain poorly understood, partly due to the lack of non-invasive tools with both cell-type specificity and high spatiotemporal resolution. Here, we developed PARIS (<u>p</u>airing <u>a</u>ctuators and <u>r</u>eceivers to optically <u>is</u>olate gap junctions), a new fully genetically encoded tool for measuring the cell-specific gap junctional coupling (GJC). PARIS successfully enabled monitoring of GJC in several cultured cell lines under physiologically relevant conditions and in distinct genetically defined neurons in <i>Drosophila</i> brain, with ~10 s temporal resolution and sub-cellular spatial resolution. These results demonstrate that PARIS is a robust, highly sensitive tool for mapping functional gap junctions and study their regulation in both health and disease.
Medical subject headings
- Gap Junctions
- Optogenetics