Investigating the roles of adhesion GPCRs in synapse formation and circuit assembly

Bidirectional trans-synaptic signaling directs synapse formation and neural circuit assembly. Increasing evidence supports that several subfamilies of adhesion G protein-coupled receptors (aGPCRs) control important mechanistic aspects of synapse assembly and neural circuit wiring by combining trans-synaptic adhesion with GPCR signaling. I will discuss the role of aGPCRs in establishing striatal D2 medium spiny neuron circuits, and our recently developed time-lapse imaging approaches to visualize synapse formation.