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A trophic role for Wnt-Ror kinase signaling during developmental pruning in Caenorhabditis elegans

Nature Neuroscience volume 12, pages 981–987 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

The molecular mechanism by which neurites are selected for elimination or incorporation into the mature circuit during developmental pruning remains unknown. The trophic theory postulates that local cues provided by target or surrounding cells act to inhibit neurite elimination. However, no widely conserved factor mediating this trophic function has been identified. We found that the developmental survival of specific neurites in Caenorhabditis elegans largely depends on detection of the morphogen Wnt by the Ror kinase CAM-1, which is a transmembrane tyrosine kinase with a Frizzled domain. Mutations in Wnt genes or in cam-1 enhanced neurite elimination, whereas overexpression of cam-1 inhibited neurite elimination in a Wnt-dependent manner. Moreover, mutations in these genes counteracted the effect of a mutation in mbr-1, which encodes a transcription factor that promotes neurite elimination. These results reveal the trophic role of an atypical Wnt pathway and reinforce the classical model of developmental pruning.

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Figure 1: The Ror kinase CAM-1 and the transcription factor MBR-1 have opposite roles in developmental neurite pruning.
Figure 2: CAM-1 functions cell-autonomously to inhibit neurite elimination.
Figure 3: Wnt is required for CAM-1–mediated inhibition of neurite elimination.
Figure 4: Wnt is provided nonautonomously by nearby neurons.
Figure 5: Developmental neurite pruning occurs in multiple neuronal subclasses, as revealed by behavioral analyses of the mbr-1 mutant.
Figure 6: Wnt, CAM-1 and MBR-1 also function in developmental neurite pruning of neurons involved in olfactory processing.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center funded by the US National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources for nematode strains; M. Tomioka, K. Yamada and M. Matsuki for constructs and technical advice; A. Fire for vectors; C. Bargmann, A. Kuhara and I. Mori for information on constructs; O. Hobert for sharing unpublished results on neurite pruning; and E. Matsuzaka for technical assistance. This work was supported by the Program for Promotion of Basic Research Activities for Innovative Bioscience. Y.H. was the recipient of a Grant-in-Aid for Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellows.

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Author notes

  1. Yu Hayashi & Eriko Kage-Nakadai

    Present address: Present address: Laboratory for Behavioral Genetics, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Saitama, Japan (Y.H.), and Department of Physiology, Tokyo Women's Medical University School of Medicine, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan (E.K.-N.).,

  2. Takaaki Hirotsu and Ryo Iwata: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Yu Hayashi, Eriko Kage-Nakadai & Takeo Kubo

  2. Department of Biology, Graduate School of Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Takaaki Hirotsu & Takeshi Ishihara

  3. Deparment of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Ryo Iwata, Hirofumi Kunitomo & Yuichi Iino

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Contributions

Y.H. designed and Y.H., R.I. and H.K. conducted the experiments on anatomical studies. Y.H., T.H. and E.K.-N. designed and conducted the experiments on behavioral studies. Y.H. wrote the manuscript. T.I., Y.I. and T.K. supervised the project.

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Correspondence to Yu Hayashi.

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Hayashi, Y., Hirotsu, T., Iwata, R. et al. A trophic role for Wnt-Ror kinase signaling during developmental pruning in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nat Neurosci 12, 981–987 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2347

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