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Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Measuring Synaptic Vesicle Endocytosis in Cultured Hippocampal Neurons
Published on: September 4, 2017
Roles of calmodulin and calmodulin-binding proteins in synaptic vesicle recycling during regulated exocytosis at
Michihiro Igarashi1, Michitoshi Watanabe
1Division of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata University, 1-757 Asahi-Machi, Niigata 951-8510, Japan. tarokaja@med.niigata-u.ac.jp
Abstract:
Calcium ion is required at various concentrations for vesicular recycling in the presynaptic terminal. Although calmodulin (CaM) is the most abundant Ca2+-binding protein and has a submicromolar affinity for Ca2+, it is not the Ca2+ sensor for vesicular fusion because this process requires Ca2+ concentrations above 1 microM. Several lines of evidence, however, suggest that CaM mediates the regulation of vesicular recycling by submicromolar Ca2+ via novel protein-protein interactions. In this review, we discuss recent findings on how CaM regulates synaptic vesicle recycling by controlling the SNARE mechanism, which is the molecular machinery that mediates exocytosis.
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