Neuronal activity remodels the F-actin based submembrane lattice in dendrites but not axons of hippocampal neurons

Abstract

The nanoscale organization of the F-actin cytoskeleton in neurons comprises membrane-associated periodical rings, bundles, and longitudinal fibers. The F-actin rings have been observed predominantly in axons but only sporadically in dendrites, where fluorescence nanoscopy reveals various patterns of F-actin arranged in mixed patches. These complex dendritic F-actin patterns pose a challenge for investigating quantitatively their regulatory mechanisms. We developed here a weakly supervised deep learning segmentation approach of fluorescence nanoscopy images of F-actin in cultured hippocampal neurons. This approach enabled the quantitative assessment of F-actin remodeling, revealing the disappearance of the rings during neuronal activity in dendrites, but not in axons. The dendritic F-actin cytoskeleton of activated neurons remodeled into longitudinal fibers. We show that this activity-dependent remodeling involves Ca2+ and NMDA-dependent mechanisms. This highly dynamic restructuring of dendritic F-actin based submembrane lattice into longitudinal fibers may serve to support activity-dependent membrane remodeling, protein trafficking and neuronal plasticity.