Zhou Zhuan's research group reported that the vesicle matrix protein Secretogranin II regulates vesicle size and neurotransmitter secretion through liquid-liquid phase separation

The Institute of Molecular Medicine, School of Future Technology, Peking University, Peking University-Tsinghua Joint Center for Life Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Biofilms, and Zhou Zhuan Laboratory of McGovern Institute for Brain Sciences, in cooperation with Zhang Zhe's group from School of Life Sciences, Peking University, will open in 202 The paper "Tuning the Size of Large Dense-Core Vesicles and Quantal Neurotransmitter Release via Secretogranin II Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation" was published online in Advanced Science (IF = 152) on July 28, 2019, reporting that large dense-core vesicles (large dense-core vesicles) The matrix protein Secretogranin II (SgII) in core vesicle, LDCV) affects the size/volume of LDCV by forming liquid-liquid phase separation, which in turn regulates the molecular mechanism of neurotransmitter protonated secretio.

There are two main types of vesicles in the nervous system: small synaptic vesicles (SSVs) and dense core vesicles (LDCVs) involved in controlled secretio.

Using the classical neuroendocrine cell model (adrenal chromaffin cells) as the research object, this paper uses electrochemical microcarbon fiber electrodes (CFE) and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRF) to find the quantification of neurotransmitters in LDCV after SgII knockdown The secretion was significantly reduced; at the same time, it was found that the reduction of LDCV quantified secretion by optoelectronic transmission electron microscopy (CLEM) was due to the reduced volume of LDCV in SgII-knockdown chromaffin cells; Next, the authors showed that SgII was purified by in vitro methods It has pH-dependent multimerization behavior, and its high polymer can be induced by Ca ²⁺

This work is co-first authored by Lin Zhaohan (PhD student in 2019), Li Yinglin (PhD student in 2017), and Zhou Yuqi (PhD student in 2018) from the Institute of Future Technology, Peking University; Professor Zhou Zhuan, postdoctoral fellow Zhang Quanfeng from the School of Future Technology (now an associate professor appointed by the Dean of the Bio-X Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University), and researcher Zhang Zhe from the School of Life Sciences are the co-corresponding author.