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Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Visualization of Thalamocortical Axon Branching and Synapse Formation in Organotypic Cocultures
Published on: March 28, 2018
Branch-restricted localization of phosphatase Prl-1 specifies axonal synaptogenesis domains
Olivier Urwyler1,2, Azadeh Izadifar3,4, Sofie Vandenbogaerde3
1VIB Center for Brain and Disease Research, Leuven, Belgium. dietmar.schmucker@kuleuven.vib.be olivier.urwyler@uzh.ch.
Abstract:
Central nervous system (CNS) circuit development requires subcellular control of synapse formation and patterning of synapse abundance. We identified the Drosophila membrane-anchored phosphatase of regenerating liver (Prl-1) as an axon-intrinsic factor that promotes synapse formation in a spatially restricted fashion. The loss of Prl-1 in mechanosensory neurons reduced the number of CNS presynapses localized on a single axon collateral and organized as a terminal arbor. Flies lacking all Prl-1 protein had locomotor defects. The overexpression of Prl-1 induced ectopic synapses. In mechanosensory neurons, Prl-1 modulates the insulin receptor (InR) signaling pathway within a single contralateral axon compartment, thereby affecting the number of synapses. The axon branch-specific localization and function of Prl-1 depend on untranslated regions of the prl-1 messenger RNA (mRNA). Therefore, compartmentalized restriction of Prl-1 serves as a specificity factor for the subcellular control of axonal synaptogenesis.
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