bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/826016; this version posted October 31, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. PRESYNAPTIC α2δ SUBUNITS ARE KEY ORGANIZERS OF GLUTAMATERGIC SYNAPSES Clemens L. Schöpf1, Stefanie Geisler1, Ruslan I. Stanika1, Marta Campiglio1, Walter A. Kaufmann3, Benedikt Nimmervoll1, Bettina Schlick1, Ryuichi Shigemoto3, and Gerald J. Obermair1,2* From Division of Physiology, Medical University Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck1, Division Physiology, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, A-3500 Krems2, and Institute of Science and Technology Austria, A-3400 Klosterneuburg3, Austria. Running head: Presynaptic α2δ subunits organize synapses Address correspondence to: *Gerald J. Obermair, Univ.-Prof. Dr., Phone: +43-2732-72090490, E-mail:
[email protected],
[email protected] In nerve cells the genes encoding for α2δ the auxiliary β and α2δ subunits. α2δ subunits, the subunits of voltage-gated calcium channels targets of the widely prescribed anti-epileptic and (VGCCs) have been linked to synaptic functions anti-allodynic drugs gabapentin and pregabalin, are and neurological disease. Here we show that α2δ membrane-anchored extracellular glycoproteins, subunits are essential for the formation and which modulate VGCC trafficking and calcium organization of glutamatergic synapses. Using a currents (Arikkath and Campbell, 2003; Dolphin, cellular α2δ subunit triple loss-of-function model, 2013; Geisler et al., 2015; Obermair et al., 2008; we demonstrate a failure in presynaptic Zamponi et al., 2015).