Munc18-1/UNC-18 is believed to prime SNARE-mediated membrane fusion, yet the underlying mechanisms remain enigmatic. Here, we examined how potential gain-of-function mutations of Munc18-1/UNC-18 affect locomotory behavior and synaptic transmission, and how Munc18-1-mediated priming is related to Munc13-1/UNC-13 and Tomosyn/TOM-1, positive and negative SNARE regulators, respectively. We show that a Munc18-1(P335A)/UNC-18(P334A) mutation leads to significantly increased locomotory activity and acetylcholine release in C. elegans, as well as enhanced synaptic neurotransmission in cultured mammalian neurons. Importantly, similar to tom-1 null mutants, unc-18(P334A) mutants partially bypass the requirement of UNC-13. Moreover, unc-18(P334A) and tom-1 null mutations confer a strong synergy in suppressing the phenotypes of unc-13 mutants. Through biochemical experiments, we demonstrate that Munc18-1(P335A) exhibits enhanced activity in SNARE complex formation as well as in binding to the preformed SNARE complex, and partially bypasses the Munc13-1 requirement in liposome fusion assays. Our results indicate that Munc18-1/UNC-18 primes vesicle fusion downstream of Munc13-1/UNC-13 by templating SNARE complex assembly, and acts antagonistically with Tomosyn/TOM-1.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTAt presynaptic sites, SNARE-mediated membrane fusion is tightly regulated by several key proteins including Munc18/UNC-18, Munc13/UNC-13 and Tomosyn/TOM-1. However, how these proteins interact with each other to achieve the precise regulation of neurotransmitter release remains largely unclear. Using C. elegans as an in vivo model, we found that a gain-of-function mutant of UNC-18 increases locomotory activity and synaptic acetylcholine release, that it partially bypasses the requirement of UNC-13 for release, and that this bypass is synergistically augmented by the lack of TOM-1. We also elucidated the biochemical basis for the gain-of-function caused by this mutation. Thus, our study provides novel mechanistic insights into how Munc18/UNC-18 primes synaptic vesicle release and how this protein interacts functionally with Munc13/UNC-13 and Tomosyn/TOM-1.

Authors: Park S, Bin NR, Yu B, Wong R, Sitarska E, Sugita K, Ma K, Xu J, Tien CW, Algouneh A, Turlova E, Wang S, Siriya P, Shahid W, Kalia L, Feng ZP, Monnier PP, Sun HS, Zhen M, Gao S, Rizo J, Sugita S