UNC-108/Rab2 regulates postendocytic trafficking in Caenorhabditis elegans.

After endocytosis, membrane proteins are often sorted between two alternative pathways: a recycling pathway and a degradation pathway. Relatively little is known about how trafficking through these alternative pathways is differentially regulated. Here, we identify UNC-108/Rab2 as a regulator of postendocytic trafficking in both neurons and coelomocytes.

Dynamics underlying synaptic gain between pairs of cortical pyramidal neurons.

Changes in connectivity between pairs of neurons can serve as a substrate for information storage and for experience-dependent changes in neuronal circuitry. Early in development, synaptic contacts form and break, but how these dynamics influence the connectivity between pairs of neurons is not known. Here we used time-lapse imaging to examine the synaptic interactions between pairs of cultured cortical pyramidal neurons, and found that the axon-dendrite contacts between each neuronal pair were composed of both a relatively stable and a more labile population.

LIN-23-mediated degradation of beta-catenin regulates the abundance of GLR-1 glutamate receptors in the ventral nerve cord of C. elegans.

Ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation has been proposed to play an important role in regulating synaptic transmission. Here we show that LIN-23, the substrate binding subunit of a Skp1/Cullin/F Box (SCF) ubiquitin ligase, regulates the abundance of the glutamate receptor GLR-1 in the ventral nerve cord of C. elegans.

Ubiquitin and AP180 regulate the abundance of GLR-1 glutamate receptors at postsynaptic elements in C. elegans.

Regulated delivery and removal of alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) glutamate receptors (GluRs) from postsynaptic elements has been proposed as a mechanism for regulating synaptic strength. Here we test the role of ubiquitin in regulating synapses that contain a C. elegans GluR, GLR-1.