Dr. Kevin De Leon and Dr. Bruno Marie recently published an article in the prestigious journal Genetics: “Autophagy, the ubiquitin proteasome system, and the MAPK pathway control the temperature dependence of synaptic growth”. Congratulations Dr. De Leon and Dr. Marie!
This study shows that developmental temperature does not affect all synapses equally. Using the Drosophila larval neuromuscular junction, we find that higher temperature selectively increases bouton number at phasic 1s motor terminals, while tonic 1b terminals remain stable. We identify neuronal autophagy and the Hiw-Wnd/P38b pathway as key regulators of this temperature-dependent structural remodeling. These…