Astrocytes play key roles in the central nervous system and regulate local blood flow and synaptic transmission via intracellular calcium (Ca2+) signaling. Astrocytic Ca2+ signals are generated by multiple pathways: Ca2+ release from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) via the inositol 1, 4, 5-trisphosphate receptor (IP3R) and Ca2+ influx through various Ca2+ channels on the plasma membrane. However, the Ca2+ channels involved in astrocytic Ca2+ homeostasis or signaling have not been fully characterized. Here, we demonstrate that spontaneous astrocytic Ca2+ transients in cultured hippocampal astrocytes were induced by cooperation between the Ca2+ release from the ER and the Ca2+ influx through store-operated calcium channels (SOCCs) on the plasma membrane. Ca2+ imaging with plasma membrane targeted GCaMP6f revealed that spontaneous astroglial Ca2+ transients were impaired by pharmacological blockade of not only Ca2+ release through IP(3)Rs, but also Ca2+ influx through SOCCs. Loss of SOCC activity resulted in the depletion of ER Ca2+, suggesting that SOCCs are activated without store depletion in hippocampal astrocytes. Our findings indicate that sustained SOCC activity, together with that of the sarco-endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase, contribute to the maintenance of astrocytic Ca2+ store levels, ultimately enabling astrocytic Ca2+ signaling. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

<p>Channelrhodopsin (ChR)-1 and ChR2 were the first-identified members of ChRs which are a growing subfamily of microbial-type rhodopsins. Light absorption drives the generation of a photocurrent in cell membranes expressing ChR2. However, the photocurrent amplitude attenuates and becomes steady-state during prolonged irradiation. This process, called desensitization or inactivation, has been attributed to the accumulation of intermediates less conductive to cations. Here we provided evidence that the dark-adapted (DA) photocurrent before desensitization is kinetically different from the light-adapted (LA) one after desensitization, that is, the deceleration of both basal-to-conductive and conductive-to-basal transitions. When the kinetics were compared between the DA and LA photocurrents for the ChR1/2 chimeras, the transmembrane helices, TM1 and TM2, were the determinants of both basal-to-conductive and conductive-to-basal transitions, whereas TM4 may contribute to the basal-to-conductive transitions and TM5 may contribute to the conductive-to-basal transitions, respectively. The fact that the desensitization-dependent decrease of the basal-to-conductive and conductive-to-basal transitions was facilitated by the TM1 exchange from ChR2 to ChR1 and reversed by the further TM2 exchange suggests that the conformation change for the channel gating is predominantly regulated by the interaction between TM1 and TM2. Although the exchange of TM1 from ChR2 to ChR1 showed no obvious influence on the spectral sensitivity, this exchange significantly induced the desensitization-dependent blue shift. Therefore, the TM1 and 2 are the main structures involved in two features of the desensitization, the stabilization of protein conformation and the charge distribution around the retinal-Schiff base (RSB⁺).</p>

Calcium (Ca2+) is a versatile intracellular second messenger that operates in various signaling pathways leading to multiple biological outputs. The diversity of spatiotemporal patterns of Ca2+ signals, generated by the coordination of Ca2+ influx from the extracellular space and Ca2+ release from the intracellular Ca2+ store the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), is considered to underlie the diversity of biological outputs caused by a single signaling molecule. However, such Ca2+ signaling diversity has not been well described because of technical limitations. Here, we describe a new method to report Ca2+ signals at subcellular resolution. We report that OER-GCaMP6f, a genetically encoded Ca2+ indicator (GECI) targeted to the outer ER membrane, can monitor Ca2+ release from the ER at higher spatiotemporal resolution than conventional GCaMP6f. OER-GCaMP6f was used for in vivo Ca2+ imaging of C elegans. We also found that the spontaneous Ca2+ elevation in cultured astrocytes reported by OER-GCaMP6f showed a distinct spatiotemporal pattern from that monitored by plasma membrane-targeted GCaMP6f (Lck-GCaMP6f); less frequent Ca2+ signal was detected by OER-GCaMP6f, in spite of the fact that Ca2+ release from the ER plays important roles in astrocytes. These findings suggest that targeting of GECI5 to the ER outer membrane enables sensitive detection of Ca2+ release from the ER at subcellular resolution, avoiding the diffusion of GECI and Ca2+. Our results indicate that Ca2+ imaging with OER-GCaMP6f in combination with Lck-GCaMP6f can contribute to describing the diversity of Ca2+ signals, by enabling dissection of Ca2+ signals at subcellular resolution. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.