The ultrastructural properties of the endoplasmic reticulum govern microdomain signaling in perisynaptic astrocytic processes

Astrocytes are now widely accepted as key regulators of brain function and behavior. Calcium (Ca 2+ ) signals in perisynaptic astrocytic processes (PAPs) enable astrocytes to fine-tune neurotransmission at tripartite synapses. As most PAPs are below the diffraction limit, their content in Ca 2+ stores and the contribution of the latter to astrocytic Ca 2+ activity is unclear. Here, we reconstruct hippocampal tripartite synapses in 3D from a high resolution electron microscopy (EM) dataset and find that 75% of PAPs contain some endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a major calcium store in astrocytes. The ER in PAPs displays strikingly diverse shapes and intracellular spatial distributions. To investigate the causal relationship between each of these geometrical properties and the spatio-temporal characteristics of Ca 2+ signals, we implemented an algorithm that generates 3D PAP meshes by altering the distribution of the ER independently from ER and cell shape. Reaction-diffusion simulations in these meshes reveal that astrocyte activity is governed by a complex interplay between the location of Ca 2+ channels, ER surface-volume ratio and spatial distribution. In particular, our results suggest that ER-PM contact sites can act as local signal amplifiers if equipped with IP 3 R clusters but attenuate PAP Ca 2+ activity in the absence of clustering. This study sheds new light on the ultrastructural basis of the diverse astrocytic Ca 2+ microdomain signals and on the mechanisms that regulate neuron-astrocyte signal transmission at tripartite synapses. Main points 6 nm isotropic volume EM reveals that 75% of perisynaptic astrocytic processes (PAPs) contain some ER PAPs & ER of the same cell display diverse geometric properties Simulations in EM-derived meshes hint that ER geometry governs Ca 2+ signals in PAPs TOC