The synaptic vesicle proteome

The synaptic vesicle cycle.

Neurotransmitter release is mediated by exocytosis of synaptic vesicles at the presynaptic active zone of nerve terminals. To support rapid and repeated rounds of release, synaptic vesicles undergo a trafficking cycle. The focal point of the vesicle cycle is Ca2+-triggered exocytosis that is followed by different routes of endocytosis and recycling. Recycling then leads to the docking and primi...

Synaptic vesicle structure

Moving cel ls l ink membrane and act in E xocytosis and actin polymerization during cell movement are tied together by Xiaofeng Zuo, Wei Guo (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA), and colleagues. They fi nd that Exo70, a component of the exocytosis machine called the exocyst, binds to the Arp2/3 complex, a regulator of actin polymerization that helps push out the front of migrating cel...

Dissecting Synaptic Vesicle Endocytosis

Synaptic vesicle endocytosis.

Exocytosis of synaptic vesicles is followed rapidly by reinternalization and recycling of their membranes. Recent studies have confirmed the key role of clathrin-mediated endocytosis in synaptic vesicle reformation and have identified new proteins that participate in this process. In addition, growing evidence suggests that lipids, primarily phosphoinositides, play an important role in synaptic...

Synaptic vesicle proteins

What are they called? The uptake and storage of neurotransmitters is taken care of by the imaginatively named ‘neurotransmitter transporter proteins’ (as well as by ion channels and a proton ATPase). The synaptic vesicle proteins in the membrane trafficking class have mostly been given the prefix ‘synapto’, from the Latin meaning ‘to attach together’, and a suffix supposed to reflect a particul...