Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40838889›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2025

Synaptic transmission is dispensable for selecting the winner input but is crucial for the subsequent events of synapse elimination.

Tzu-Huei Kao, Yuto Okuno, Kyoko Matsuyama, Takaki Watanabe, Naofumi Uesaka, Masanobu Kano

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. mGluR1 signaling is necessary for strengthening winner climbing fiber inputs in the developing mouse cerebellum.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Tzu-Huei Kao *Department of Neurophysiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.ORCID 0000-0001-5737-7747
Yuto Okuno *Department of Neurophysiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.ORCID 0009-0006-3151-3599
Kyoko MatsuyamaDepartment of Neurophysiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
Takaki WatanabeDepartment of Neurophysiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
Naofumi UesakaDepartment of Neurophysiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.ORCID 0000-0002-9744-944X
Masanobu KanoDepartment of Neurophysiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.ORCID 0000-0002-0725-3292

Funding

MEXT | Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) 18H04012MEXT | Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) 20H05915MEXT | Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) 21H04785MEXT | Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) 22H05093MEXT | Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) 25000015
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Synaptic transmission has long been thought to regulate neuronal wiring during postnatal development, but this assumption remains largely untested. Selective strengthening of a single "winner" climbing fiber (CF) afferent to each Purkinje cell (PC) and elimination of the other "loser" CF axons in the cerebellum has been a representative model of neural circuit refinement. Here, we examined the role of neurotransmission at CF-PC synapses in their postnatal development. We labeled a subset of CFs in neonatal mice with fluorescent markers and the tetanus toxin light chain to ablate neurotransmitter release from these CFs. Surprisingly, we found that such neurotransmitter release-deficient CFs were able to become the winners. However, synaptic transmission was crucial for the winning CF to extend its synaptic territory along the PC dendritic arbor and eliminate the loser CFs. These findings reveal how synaptic transmission governs multiple steps of synapse elimination but not the selection of the winner input that persists throughout life.

Indexed as

Purkinje CellsSynapsesSynaptic TransmissionAnimalsAnimals, NewbornCerebellumMicecerebellumclimbing fiberPurkinje cellsynapse eliminationsynaptic transmission

Identifiers

PMID40838889
PMCPMC12402991

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.