CaMKII mediates sexually dimorphic synaptic transmission at neuromuscular junctions in C. elegans.

ABSTRACT: Sexually dimorphic behaviors are ubiquitous throughout the animal kingdom. Although both sex-specific and sex-shared neurons have been functionally implicated in these diverse behaviors, less is known about the roles of sex-shared neurons. Here, we discovered sexually dimorphic cholinergic synaptic transmission in C. elegans occurring at neuromuscular junctions (NMJs), with males exhibiting increased release frequencies, which result in sexually dimorphic locomotion behaviors. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that males have significantly more synaptic vesicles (SVs) at their cholinergic synapses than hermaphrodites. Analysis of previously published transcriptome identified the male-enriched transcripts and focused our attention on UNC-43/CaMKII. We ultimately show that differential a

SUBMITTER: Zeng WX 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10457463 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature