Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

A minimal domain responsible for Munc13 activity.

Jayeeta Basu1, Nan Shen, Irina Dulubova

  • 1Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
|October 18, 2005
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Mapping brain-wide monosynaptic inputs to single neurons with ROInet-seq.

Cell reports methods·2026
Same author

Guiding AlphaFold to predict how Munc13-1 opens Syntaxin-1.

FEBS open bio·2026
Same author

Purinergic signaling promotes gliomagenesis through nuclear calcium transients.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same author

Identity crisis: exploring the boundaries of cell type identification in the age of single-cell transcriptomics.

Frontiers in cellular neuroscience·2026
Same author

SNAP47 Silencing Impairs the Morphology and Neurotransmission of Hippocampal GABAergic Neurons.

Molecular neurobiology·2026
Same author

Lateral entorhinal cortex supports behaviorally-induced hippocampal ensemble stability for reliable memory recall.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

Munc13 proteins control neurotransmitter release by priming vesicles. Researchers identified a specific Munc13-1 alpha-helical domain that restores neurotransmission in neurons lacking Munc13s.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Molecular Biology
  • Cell Biology

Background:

  • Munc13 proteins are crucial for neurotransmitter release.
  • They regulate the priming of synaptic vesicles to a release-ready state.
  • The specific protein sequences mediating this priming activity remain unidentified.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify the functional sequences within Munc13 proteins responsible for synaptic vesicle priming.
  • To determine if a specific domain of Munc13-1 possesses autonomous priming activity.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of mammalian Munc13-1 protein structure.
  • Functional rescue experiments in hippocampal neurons genetically deficient in Munc13s.

Main Results:

Related Experiment Videos

  • A large, autonomously folded alpha-helical domain of Munc13-1 was identified.
  • This domain alone was sufficient to rescue the complete blockade of neurotransmitter release in Munc13-deficient neurons.

Conclusions:

  • The identified alpha-helical domain of Munc13-1 contains the essential priming activity for neurotransmitter release.
  • This finding elucidates a key molecular mechanism underlying synaptic vesicle release.