Simulation of a sudden drop-off in distal dense core vesicle concentration in Drosophila type II motoneuron terminals

Abstract Recent experimental observations have shown evidence of an unexpected sudden drop-off in the dense core vesicles (DCVs) content at the ends of certain types of axon endings. This paper seeks to determine whether these observations may be explained without modifying the parameters characterizing the ability of distal en passant boutons to capture and accumulate DCVs. We developed a mathematical model that is based on the conservation of captured and transiting DCVs in boutons. The model consists of 77 ordinary differential equations and is solved using a standard Matlab solver. We hypothesize that the drop in DCV content in distal boutons is due to an insufficient supply of anterogradely moving DCVs coming from the soma. As anterogradely moving DCVs are captured (and eventually destroyed) in more proximal boutons on their way to the end of the terminal, the fluxes of anterogradely moving DCVs between the boutons become increasingly smaller, and the most distal boutons are left without DCVs. We tested this hypothesis by modifying the flux of DCVs entering the terminal and found that the number of most distal boutons left unfilled increases if the DCV flux entering the terminal is decreased. The number of anterogradely moving DCVs in the axon can be increased either by the release of a portion of captured DCVs into the anterograde component or by an increase of the anterograde DCV flux into the terminal. This increase could lead to having enough anterogradely moving DCVs such that they could reach the most distal bouton and then turn around by changing molecular motors that propel them. The model suggests that this could result in an increased concentration of resident DCVs in distal boutons beginning with bouton 2 (the most distal is bouton 1). This is because in distal boutons, DCVs have a larger chance to be captured from the transiting state as they pass the boutons moving anterogradely and then again as they pass the same boutons moving retrogradely.