TY - GEN A1 - Özel, M. Neset A1 - Kulkarni, Abhishek A1 - Hasan, Amr A1 - Brummer, Josephine A1 - Moldenhauer, Marian A1 - Daumann, Ilsa-Maria A1 - Wolfenberg, Heike A1 - Dercksen, Vincent J. A1 - Kiral, F. Ridvan A1 - Weiser, Martin A1 - Prohaska, Steffen A1 - von Kleist, Max A1 - Hiesinger, Peter Robin T1 - Serial synapse formation through filopodial competition for synaptic seeding factors N2 - Following axon pathfinding, growth cones transition from stochastic filopodial exploration to the formation of a limited number of synapses. How the interplay of filopodia and synapse assembly ensures robust connectivity in the brain has remained a challenging problem. Here, we developed a new 4D analysis method for filopodial dynamics and a data-driven computational model of synapse formation for R7 photoreceptor axons in developing Drosophila brains. Our live data support a 'serial synapse formation' model, where at any time point only a single 'synaptogenic' filopodium suppresses the synaptic competence of other filopodia through competition for synaptic seeding factors. Loss of the synaptic seeding factors Syd-1 and Liprin-α leads to a loss of this suppression, filopodial destabilization and reduced synapse formation, which is sufficient to cause the destabilization of entire axon terminals. Our model provides a filopodial 'winner-takes-all' mechanism that ensures the formation of an appropriate number of synapses. T3 - ZIB-Report - 19-45 KW - filopodia KW - growth cone dynamics KW - brain wiring KW - 2-photon microscopy KW - model Y1 - 2019 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-zib/frontdoor/index/index/docId/7439 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-74397 SN - 1438-0064 ER -