Developmental elimination of electrical synapses by UNC-51/UNC-76-mediated vesicular transport.

In Caenorhabditis elegans PLM mechanosensory neurons, transient gap junctions are eliminated during circuit maturation, with UNC-51/UNC-76-mediated vesicular transport driving net retrograde innexin removal.

• Why it matters: Electrical synapses are transient during development, but the mechanism that eliminates them to enable proper circuit maturation is unclear.
• What they did: The authors tracked transient gap junctions and calcium dynamics in PLM neurons, used optogenetic ablation of early gap junctions, and performed forward genetic screening to identify UNC-51/UNC-76; they tested RAB-10-dependent retrograde removal of innexins.
• The result: Early gap junction ablation abolished calcium dynamics and disrupted chemical synapse formation, while restoring calcium activity rescued the defect; disrupting UNC-51/UNC-76 prevented elimination, leaving persistent electrical synapses and neuronal hyperactivity.

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