Building upon previous studies that reported motor impairment36 and NMJ synaptic impairment33,34, we turned our attention to defects in the descending excitatory synaptic components of the spinal cord motor system of larvae expressing the ALS-associated TARDBP missense mutation 1176G > T (encoding the G348C variant). Here, TARDBP is linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.