TY - JOUR T1 - Rapid Assembly of Functional Presynaptic Boutons Triggered by Adhesive Contacts JF - The Journal of Neuroscience JO - J. Neurosci. SP - 12449 LP - 12466 DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1381-09.2009 VL - 29 IS - 40 AU - Anna Lisa Lucido AU - Fernando Suarez Sanchez AU - Peter Thostrup AU - Adam V. Kwiatkowski AU - Sergio Leal-Ortiz AU - Gopakumar Gopalakrishnan AU - Dalinda Liazoghli AU - Wiam Belkaid AU - R. Bruce Lennox AU - Peter Grutter AU - Craig C. Garner AU - David R. Colman Y1 - 2009/10/07 UR - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/29/40/12449.abstract N2 - CNS synapse assembly typically follows after stable contacts between “appropriate” axonal and dendritic membranes are made. We show that presynaptic boutons selectively form de novo following neuronal fiber adhesion to beads coated with poly-d-lysine (PDL), an artificial cationic polypeptide. As demonstrated by atomic force and live confocal microscopy, functional presynaptic boutons self-assemble as rapidly as 1 h after bead contact, and are found to contain a variety of proteins characteristic of presynaptic endings. Interestingly, presynaptic compartment assembly does not depend on the presence of a biological postsynaptic membrane surface. Rather, heparan sulfate proteoglycans, including syndecan-2, as well as others possibly adsorbed onto the bead matrix or expressed on the axon surface, are required for assembly to proceed by a mechanism dependent on the dynamic reorganization of F-actin. Our results indicate that certain (but not all) nonspecific cationic molecules like PDL, with presumably electrostatically mediated adhesive properties, can effectively bypass cognate and natural postsynaptic ligands to trigger presynaptic assembly in the absence of specific target recognition. In contrast, we find that postsynaptic compartment assembly depends on the prior presence of a mature presynaptic ending. ER -