We compared the pore morphology of an arid lands vesicular soil horizon in a disturbed and undisturbed state. This surface vesicular horizon is characterized by non-connected pores that hinder soil water infiltration and thus plays a central role in arid ecosystem hydrodynamics. Disturbance is hypothesized to result in a change in pore morphology that could alter water movement through the hori...

The extracellular space of the brain contains gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) that activates extrasynaptic GABA(A) receptors mediating tonic inhibition. The source of this GABA is uncertain: it could be overspill of vesicular release, non-vesicular leakage, reverse transport, dying cells or glia. Using a novel approach, we simultaneously measured phasic and tonic inhibitory currents and assessed...

Synaptic vesicles have a high sterol content, but the importance of vesicular sterols during vesicle recycling is unclear. We used the Drosophila temperature-sensitive dynamin mutant, shibire-ts1, to block endocytosis of recycling synaptic vesicles and to trap them reversibly at the plasma membrane where they were accessible to sterol extraction. Depletion of sterols from trapped vesicles preve...

This study examined the calcium transport properties of two subcellular fractions of bovine aorta obtained by differential centrifugation. The vesicular fraction had a high-affinity (Km = 1.05 X 10(-6)M) calcium transport mechanism which could be potentiated by using the calcium-precipitating anion, oxalate. The mitochondria-enriched fraction's calcium transport system had a lower affinity for ...

Amphetamine, a highly addictive drug with therapeutic efficacy, exerts paradoxical effects on the fundamental communication modes employed by dopamine neurons in modulating behavior. While amphetamine elevates tonic dopamine signaling by depleting vesicular stores and driving non-exocytotic release through reverse transport, this psychostimulant also activates phasic dopamine signaling by up-re...

Recently accumulated knowledge allows more precise comparison of the structural (and possibly evolutionary) relationships of several different animal rhabdoviruses: vesicular stomatitis virus, rabies virus, Kern Canyon virus, and spring viremia of carp virus. Each virus is composed primarily of a glycoprotein, an RNA-associated nucleoprotein, and one or two membrane proteins. Vesicular stomatit...