PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Elizabeth A. Williams
AU  - Csaba Verasztó
AU  - Sanja Jasek
AU  - Markus Conzelmann
AU  - Réza Shahidi
AU  - Philipp Bauknecht
AU  - Gáspár Jékely
TI  - Synaptic and peptidergic connectome of a neurosecretory centre in the annelid brain
AID  - 10.1101/115204
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 115204
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/03/08/115204.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/03/08/115204.full
AB  - Neurosecretory centres in animal brains use peptidergic signalling to influence physiology and behaviour. Understanding neurosecretory centre function requires mapping cell types, synapses, and peptidergic networks. Here we use electron microscopy and gene expression mapping to analyse the synaptic and peptidergic connectome of an entire neurosecretory centre. We mapped 78 neurosecretory neurons in the brain of larval Platynereis dumerilii, a marine annelid. These neurons form an anterior neurosecretory organ expressing many neuropeptides, including hypothalamic peptide orthologues and their receptors. Analysis of peptide-receptor pairs revealed sparsely connected networks linking specific neuronal subsets. We experimentally analysed one peptide-receptor pair and found that a neuropeptide can couple neurosecretory and synaptic brain signalling. Our study uncovered extensive non-synaptic signalling within a neurosecretory centre and its connection to the synaptic brain.