Sensitive red protein calcium indicators for imaging neural activity

An Extracellular Redox Signal Triggers Calcium Release and Impacts the Asexual Development of Toxoplasma gondii

The ability of an organism to sense and respond to environmental redox fluctuations relies on a signaling network that is incompletely understood in apicomplexan parasites such as Toxoplasma gondii. The impact of changes in redox upon the development of this intracellular parasite is not known. Here, we provide a revised collection of 58 genes containing domains related to canonical antioxidant function, with their encoded proteins widely dispersed throughout different cellular compartments. We demonstrate that addition of exogenous H₂O₂ to human fibroblasts infected with T. gondii triggers a Ca²⁺ flux in the cytosol of intracellular parasites that can induce egress. In line with existing models, egress triggered by exogenous H₂O₂ is reliant upon both Calcium-Dependent Protein Kinase 3 and diacylglycerol kinases. Finally, we show that the overexpression a glutaredoxin-roGFP2 redox sensor fusion protein in the parasitophorous vacuole severely impacts parasite replication. These data highlight the rich redox network that exists in T. gondii, evidencing a link between extracellular redox and intracellular Ca²⁺ signaling that can culminate in parasite egress. Our findings also indicate that the redox potential of the intracellular environment contributes to normal parasite growth. Combined, our findings highlight the important role of redox as an unexplored regulator of parasite biology.

Comparison between transgenic and AAV-PHP.eB-mediated expression of GCaMP6s using in vivo wide-field functional imaging of brain activity

We employ transcranial wide-field single-photon imaging to compare genetically encoded calcium sensors under transgenic or viral vector expression strategies. Awake, head-fixed animals and brief visual flash stimuli are used to assess function. The use of awake transcranial imaging may reduce confounds attributed to cranial window implantation or anesthesia states. We report differences in wide-field epifluorescence brightness and peak Δ F / F 0 response to visual stimulation between expression strategies. Other metrics for indicator performance include fluctuation analysis (standard deviation) and regional correlation maps made from spontaneous activity. We suggest that multiple measures, such as stimulus-evoked signal-to-noise ratio, brightness, and averaged visual Δ F / F 0 response, may be necessary to characterize indicator sensitivity and methods of expression. Furthermore, we show that strategies using blood brain barrier-permeable viruses, such as PHP.eB, yield comparable expression and function as those derived from transgenic mice. We suggest that testing of new genetically engineered activity sensors could employ a single-photon, wide-field imaging pipeline involving visual stimulation in awake mice that have been intravenously injected with PHP.eB.