Jennifer Jahncke

Postdoc @VollumInstitute studying synapses. Likes cycling, hiking, wrangling data, and petting dogs. Follow me for updates on my plants. She/her.

[The Onion @TheOnion]

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens https://t.co/ccr3VmZzjD

[Jennifer Jahncke @thejenjay]

@naddycat @jhowardtrotter I personally have not, I’d be very curious how it does.

[Jennifer Jahncke @thejenjay]

@Awedness Always happy to answer methods questions, don’t hesitate to reach out if I can help!

[Jennifer Jahncke @thejenjay]

The second half of my dissertation work is now up on bioRxiv! Here we examine the contribution of the functional domains of Dystroglycan to inhibitory MLI:PC synapses in cerebellar cortex 🧵

[bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv_neursci]

Distinct functional domains of Dystroglycan regulate inhibitory synapse formation and maintenance in cerebellar Purkinje cells https://t.co/h1T1gMNj9D #biorxiv_neursci

[Jennifer Jahncke @thejenjay]

@Awedness Thanks Wendy! I do always post fix for 30 mins - I wouldn’t say it’s necessary but it helps with the tissue integrity since I don’t perfuse with a ton of PFA. I plop the entire brain in PFA for 30 mins at room temp, I don’t block the cerebellum off until I’m ready to section.

[Jennifer Jahncke @thejenjay]

@jhowardtrotter @SiegenthalerLab Thanks Justin!

[Jennifer Jahncke @thejenjay]

In summary:
- Dag1 glycosylation = formation + function
- Dag1 ICD = function

We think that extracellular interactions likely with a Nrxn family member is supporting synapse structure whereas indirect intracellular interactions are supporting synapse function.

[Jennifer Jahncke @thejenjay]

What about intracellular interactions? I generated a PC specific Dystroglycan ICD truncation to get at this question. Interestingly, these mice had impaired synapse function but totally normal synapse formation.

[Jennifer Jahncke @thejenjay]

@jamienkrueger Stranger danger!!

[Jennifer Jahncke @thejenjay]

@HeijdenLab @NINDSfunding That’s huge! Congrats!

[Jennifer Jahncke @thejenjay]

@HeijdenLab This paper was very close to being a bunch of appendices in my dissertation and supplements to a paper but when we realized what we had we decided to make something out of it! Really glad we did.

[Jennifer Jahncke @thejenjay]

@neurodevKathy Thanks Kathleen! This was a couple years of trial and error. I learned a lot and I hope others can learn from from my experience as well!

[Jennifer Jahncke @thejenjay]

A couple important lessons here. (1) Characterize your Cre line! It might not do what you think it does. (2) Reporter expression ≠ target gene deletion.

[Jennifer Jahncke @thejenjay]

Do you study cerebellar Purkinje cells? Do you use conditional genetics to manipulate said Purkinje cells? Friend, do I have a paper for you: Tools for Cre-Mediated Conditional Deletion of Floxed Alleles from Developing Cerebellar Purkinje Cells https://t.co/MX24F8OmIr

[Jennifer Jahncke @thejenjay]

For kicks, I also characterized the timecourse of reporter expression and Dystroglycan deletion using virally expressed Cre (AAV8-CMV-Cre at P0) and found a similar timecourse to that of Pcp2-Cre.