NIH VideoCast - Shedding light on the structural and functional assembly of synapses

Skip Navigation

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Shedding light on the structural and functional assembly of synapses

Loading... Loading video...

269 Views

Air date:	Monday, April 18, 2016, 12:00:00 PM Time displayed is Eastern Time, Washington DC Local
Views:	Total views: 269 (34 Live, 235 On-demand)
Category:	Neuroscience
Runtime:	00:58:36
Closed captioning:	Check box to display CC outside of the video Note: You can drag the captioning window around and resize it
Description:	NIH Neuroscience Series Seminar At synaptic contacts between neurons, the presynaptic active zone organizes Ca2+-mediated release of neurotransmitter to activate neurotransmitter receptors localized at the postsynaptic specialization. How these synaptic compartments assemble and control their function is under intense investigation. Genetic analysis in the fruit fly Drosophila allowed Dr. Sigrist’s lab to identify a master organizer of presynaptic active zones, a protein they called Bruchpilot. At synapses lacking Bruchpilot, clustering of presynaptic Ca2+-channels is defective, and efficiency of neurotransmitter release is dramatically reduced. Thus, this protein might well organize changes of synaptic performance in vivo. They now address the architecture of active zones systematically analyzing synapses in two models, flies and mice. To this end, genetic and biochemical analysis is combined with a recent advance of light microscopy, stimulated emission microscopy (STED). STED drastically increases resolution of fluorescence microscopy, uncovering so far unseen substructures in the molecular architecture of synapses. Their results are relevant in the context of learning and memory as well as degenerative diseases of the nervous system.

NLM Title:	Shedding light on the structural and functional assembly of synapses / Stephan Sigrist.
Author:	Sigrist, Stephan. National Institutes of Health (U.S.),
Publisher:
Abstract:	(CIT): NIH Neuroscience Series Seminar : At synaptic contacts between neurons, the presynaptic active zone organizes Ca2+-mediated release of neurotransmitter to activate neurotransmitter receptors localized at the postsynaptic specialization. How these synaptic compartments assemble and control their function is under intense investigation. Genetic analysis in the fruit fly Drosophila allowed Dr. Sigrist"s lab to identify a master organizer of presynaptic active zones, a protein they called Bruchpilot. At synapses lacking Bruchpilot, clustering of presynaptic Ca2+-channels is defective, and efficiency of neurotransmitter release is dramatically reduced. Thus, this protein might well organize changes of synaptic performance in vivo. They now address the architecture of active zones systematically analyzing synapses in two models, flies and mice. To this end, genetic and biochemical analysis is combined with a recent advance of light microscopy, stimulated emission microscopy (STED). STED drastically increases resolution of fluorescence microscopy, uncovering so far unseen substructures in the molecular architecture of synapses. Their results are relevant in the context of learning and memory as well as degenerative diseases of the nervous system.
Subjects:	Calcium Channels--physiology Synapses--physiology Synapses--ultrastructure
Publication Types:	Lecture Webcast

NLM Classification:	WL 102.8
NLM ID:	101682325
CIT Live ID:	17984
Permanent link:	https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=17984

Related Videos...