Otoferlin acts as a Ca2+ sensor for vesicle fusion and vesicle pool replenishment at auditory hair cell ribbon synapses

Hearing relies on rapid, temporally precise, and sustained neurotransmitter release at the ribbon synapses of sensory cells, the inner hair cells (IHCs). This process requires otoferlin, a six C2-domain, Ca2+-binding transmembrane protein of synaptic vesicles. To decipher the role of otoferlin in the synaptic vesicle cycle, we produced knock-in mice (Otof Ala515,Ala517/Ala515,Ala517) with lower Ca2+-binding affinity of the C2C domain. The IHC ribbon synapse structure, synaptic Ca2+ currents, and otoferlin distribution were unaffected in these mutant mice, but auditory brainstem response wave-I amplitude was reduced. Lower Ca2+ sensitivity and delay of the fast and sustained components of synaptic exocytosis were revealed by membrane capacitance measurement upon modulations of intracellular Ca2+ concentration, by varying Ca2+ influx through voltage-gated Ca2+-channels or Ca2+ uncaging. Otoferlin thus functions as a Ca2+ sensor, setting the rates of primed vesicle fusion with the presynaptic plasma membrane and synaptic vesicle pool replenishment in the IHC active zone

Bayesian networks classifiers applied to documents

This paper discusses the use of the bayesian network model for a classification problem related to the document image understanding field. Our application is focused on logical labeling in documents, which consists in assigning logical labels to text blocks. The objective is to map a set of logical tags, composing the document logical structure, to the physical text components. We build a bayesian network model that allows this mapping using supervised learning, and without imposing a priori constraints on the document structure. The learning strategy is based partly on genetic programming tools. A prototype has been implemented, and tested on tables of contents found in periodicals and magazines.

Corticosteroid binding globulin : a new target for cortisol-driven obesity

Chantier qualité spécifique "Auteurs Externes" département de Génétique animale : uniquement liaison auteur au référentiel HR-AccessInternational audienc