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The Journal of Neuroscience, January 15, 1999, 19(2):539-548
The Caenorhabditis elegans Gene unc-25
Encodes Glutamic Acid Decarboxylase and Is Required for Synaptic
Transmission But Not Synaptic Development
Yishi
Jin1, 3,
Erik
Jorgensen2, 3,
Erika
Hartwieg3, and
H. Robert
Horvitz3
1 Department of Biology, Sinsheimer Laboratories,
University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, 2 Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake
City, Utah 84112, and 3 Howard Hughes Medical Institute,
Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
The neurotransmitter GABA has been proposed to play a role
during nervous system development. We show that the
Caenorhabditis elegans gene unc-25
encodes glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD), the GABA biosynthetic
enzyme. unc-25 is expressed specifically in GABAergic
neurons. Null mutations in unc-25 eliminate the UNC-25 protein or alter amino acids conserved in all known GADs, result in a
complete lack of GABA, and cause defects in all GABA-mediated behaviors. In unc-25 mutants the GABAergic neurons have
normal axonal trajectories and synaptic connectivity, and the size and shape of synaptic vesicles are normal. The number of synaptic vesicles
at GABAergic neuromuscular junctions is slightly increased. Cholinergic
ventral nerve cord neurons, which innervate the same muscles as
GABAergic ventral cord neurons, have normal morphology, connectivity,
and synaptic vesicles. We conclude that GAD activity and GABA are not
necessary for the development or maintenance of neuromuscular junctions
in C. elegans.
Key words:
GABA; -amino butyric acid; GAD; glutamate
decarboxylase; neuromuscular junctions; C. elegans
Copyright © 1999 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/99/192539-10$05.00/0
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