The visual cycle system in a primitive chordate, ascidian Ciona intestinalis, was studied by whole-mount in situ hybridization and by whole-mount immunohistochemistry. Three visual cycle proteins, Ciona homologue of RGR (Ci-opsin3), CRALBP (Ci-CRALBP), and BCO/RPE65 (Ci-BCO/RPE65) were widely distributed in the brain vesicle and visceral ganglion. To identify the visual cycle system in a primit...

Sakuma and Imai [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 198101 (2011)] established a temperature-controlled cyclic process for model system of self-reproducing vesicles without feeding. The vesicle generates smaller inclusion called "daughter vesicle" inside the original (we call this "mother vesicle") then daughter is expelled through small pore on mother vesicle. This birthing. In present study we theoretical...

The fluorescent probe FM1-43 has been used extensively for imaging vesicle recycling; however, high nonspecific adsorption resulting in elevated background levels has precluded its use in certain tissues, notably brain slices. We have found that a sulfobutylated derivative of beta-cyclodextrin (ADVASEP-7) has a higher affinity for FM1-43 than the plasma membrane. ADVASEP-7 was used as a carrier...

The mechanism of secretory-vesicle formation from the trans-Golgi network (TGN) of endocrine cells is poorly understood. To identify cytosolic activities that facilitate the formation and fission of nascent secretory vesicles, we treated permeabilized pituitary GH3 cells with high salt to remove endogenous budding factors. Using this cell preparation, secretory-vesicle budding from the TGN requ...

As a step toward the elucidation of mechanisms in vesicle budding, a cell-free assay that measures cytosol-induced vesicle generation from liposomes was established. This assay then was used to explore the role of phosphoinositides in vesicle formation. Liposomes incubated with brain cytosol in the presence of ATP and GTP massively generated small vesicles, as assessed both quantitatively and q...

Resolution of synaptic vesicle neurotransmitter content has mostly been limited to the study of stimulated release in cultured cell systems, and it has been controversial as to whether synaptic vesicle transmitter levels are saturated in vivo. We use electrochemical cytometry to count dopamine molecules in individual synaptic vesicles in populations directly sampled from brain tissue. Vesicles ...

background: cryopreservation and in vitro maturation (ivm) of oocyte is becoming an important technique in infertility treatment and fertility preservation. also it has been proposed to establish a genetic resource bank for endangered or commercially important animal species. objective: the aim of this study was to evaluate viability, maturation and fertilization rate of mouse immature oocytes ...

An open challenge at the forefront of modern neuroscience is to obtain a comprehensive mapping of the neural pathways that underlie human brain function; an enhanced understanding of the wiring diagram of the brain promises to lead to new breakthroughs in diagnosing and treating neurological disorders. Inferring brain structure from image data, such as that obtained via electron microscopy (EM)...

Coated vesicles are involved in the intracellular transport of membrane proteins between a variety of membrane compartments. The coats of bovine brain coated vesicles contain at least six polypeptides in addition to an 180,000-dalton polypeptide called clathrin. In this report we show that the 54,000and 56,000-dalton coated vesicle polypeptides are aand B-tubulin, determined by immunoblotting a...

We have developed procedures for detecting synaptic vesicle-binding proteins by using glutaraldehyde-fixed or native vesicle fractions as absorbent matrices. Both adsorbents identify a prominent synaptic vesicle-binding protein of 36 kD in rat brain synaptosomes and mouse brain primary cultures. The binding of this protein to synaptic vesicles is competed by synaptophysin, a major integral memb...