Higher values of the short-pause position preference indicate that mitochondrial short pauses occurred more preferentially near presynaptic sites. APP-containing vesicles were used as a cargo control and stationary mitochondria localised away from

presynaptic sites were used as a positional control. The short-pause position preferences for each condition at 3 weeks are summarised in Fig. 6B. Anterogradely moving mitochondria showed significantly high values this website of the short-pause position preference at synaptic sites (Z = 4.13, P < 0.001; Z-test). Additionally, retrogradely moving APP-containing vesicles with TTX showed preferential short pause near synapses (Z = 2.24, P = 0.03; Z-test). In order to examine a relationship between short-pause events and synaptic properties, presynapses were grouped into those with higher total fluorescence intensities of EGFP-VAMP2 (possibly containing more SVs; Fig. 2C) and those with lower intensities EPZ015666 datasheet (containing less SVs). Anterogradely moving mitochondria preferentially stopped temporarily near the positions of synapses with more SVs ( = 7.99, P = 0.005; Pearson’s chi-square test; Table 2), but this preference of anterogradely moving mitochondria was attenuated by TTX

application ( = 1.85, P = 0.17; Pearson’s chi-square test; Table 2). However, retrogradely moving mitochondria showed a higher tendency towards temporal stop near synapses with more SVs in the presence of TTX ( = 10.92, P = 0.001; Pearson’s chi-square test; Table 2). These seemingly opposite tendencies may indicate that the regulation of mitochondrial preferential pause at larger synapses may differ between anterograde and retrograde transport. Chronic TTX treatment decreased the short-pause rates of axonal mitochondria (Fig. 5B), Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II suggesting that neuronal activity regulates the transport of axonal mitochondria. To gain further insight into the acute regulation of mitochondria transport by neuronal activity, axonal mitochondria were imaged under the application of electrical

stimulation. Cultured hippocampal neurons expressing mCherry-OMP and G-CaMP6 (Ohkura et al., 2012) were imaged in Tyrode’s solution with the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor blocker D(-)-2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid and the AMPA receptor blocker 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione, which were added to prevent glutamate toxicity under electrical stimulation (Antero, n = 110 mitochondria; Retro, n = 120 mitochondria from seven cells; Fig. 7A–F). Live cells were placed on a heated stage and imaged at intervals of 3 s for 50 min. Electrical field stimulations of 40 Hz for 10 s were applied every 3 min. The induction of neural activities was confirmed by the elevation of G-CaMP6 fluorescence intensity quantified as ΔF/F0 (Fig. 7A).