PUBLICATION
Nanoscale dynamics of synaptic vesicle trafficking and fusion at the presynaptic active zone
- Authors
- Vaithianathan, T., Henry, D., Akmentin, W., Matthews, G.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-160218-7
- Date
- 2016
- Source
- eLIFE 5: (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Matthews, Gary, Vaithianathan, Thirumalini
- Keywords
- neuroscience, zebrafish, presynaptic mechanisms, retina, synaptic transmission
- MeSH Terms
-
- Macromolecular Substances
- Zebrafish
- Presynaptic Terminals/metabolism*
- Synaptic Vesicles/metabolism*
- Patch-Clamp Techniques
- PubMed
- 26880547 Full text @ Elife
Abstract
The cytomatrix at the active zone (CAZ) is a macromolecular complex that facilitates the supply of release-ready synaptic vesicles to support neurotransmitter release at synapses. To reveal the dynamics of this supply process in living synapses, we used super-resolution imaging to track single vesicles at voltage-clamped presynaptic terminals of retinal bipolar neurons, whose CAZ contains a specialized structure-the synaptic ribbon-that supports both fast, transient and slow, sustained modes of transmission. We find that the synaptic ribbon serves a dual function as a conduit for diffusion of synaptic vesicles and a platform for vesicles to fuse distal to the plasma membrane itself, via compound fusion. The combination of these functions allows the ribbon-type CAZ to achieve the continuous transmitter release required by synapses of neurons that carry tonic, graded visual signals in the retina.
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