Unc-13 and Unc-10/Rim Localize Synaptic Vesicles to Specific Membrane Domains.
From: Ecole Normale Supérieure, Biologie Cellulaire de la Synapse, and Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U789, F-75005 Paris, France,.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
- Publish Date: Aug 2006
- ISSN: 1529-2401
- Volume: 26
- Issue: 31
- Pages: 8040-7
- Medium: Internet
- Language: English
- Citation (JAMA): Weimer Robby M, Gracheva Elena O, Meyrignac Olivier, et al. Unc-13 and Unc-10/Rim Localize Synaptic Vesicles to Specific Membrane Domains.. J. Neurosci. Aug 2006;26:8040-7
Abstract
Synaptic vesicles undergo a maturation step, termed priming, in which they become competent to fuse with the plasma membrane. To morphologically define the site of vesicle priming and identify fusion-competent synaptic vesicles, we combined a rapid physical-fixation technique with immunogold staining and high-resolution morphometric analysis at Caenorhabditis elegans neuromuscular junctions. In these presynaptic terminals, a subset of synaptic vesicles contact the plasma membrane within approximately 100 nm of a presynaptic dense projection. UNC-13, a protein required for vesicle priming, localizes to this same region of the plasma membrane. In an unc-13 null mutant, few synaptic vesicles contact the plasma membrane, suggesting that membrane-contacting synaptic vesicles represent the morphological correlates of primed vesicles. Interestingly, a subpopulation of membrane-contacting vesicles, located within 30 nm of a dense projection, are unperturbed in unc-13 mutants. We show that UNC-10/Rim, a protein implicated in presynaptic plasticity, localizes to dense projections and that loss of UNC-10/Rim causes an UNC-13-independent reduction in membrane-contacting synaptic vesicles within 30 nm of the dense projections. Our data together identify a discrete domain for vesicle priming within 100 nm of dense projections and further suggest that UNC-10/Rim and UNC-13 separately contribute to the membrane localization of synaptic vesicles within this domain.
Mesh Headings (Keywords): Animals, Caenorhabditis elegans, Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins, Carrier Proteins, Cells, Cultured, Membrane Microdomains, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Synaptic Vesicles
Check for Full Text / PubMed Unique Identifier (PMID): 16885217
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