Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 3, 2026

Postsynaptic Recordings at Afferent Dendrites Contacting Cochlear Inner Hair Cells: Monitoring Multivesicular Release at a Ribbon Synapse
Published on: February 10, 2011
Exocytosis at the hair cell ribbon synapse apparently operates without neuronal SNARE proteins
Régis Nouvian1, Jakob Neef, Anna V Bulankina
1InnerEarLab, Department of Otolaryngology and Center for Molecular Physiology of the Brain, University of Göttingen Medical Center, Göttingen, Germany.
Abstract:
SNARE proteins mediate membrane fusion. Neurosecretion depends on neuronal soluble NSF attachment protein receptors (SNAREs; SNAP-25, syntaxin-1, and synaptobrevin-1 or synaptobrevin-2) and is blocked by neurotoxin-mediated cleavage or genetic ablation. We found that exocytosis in mouse inner hair cells (IHCs) was insensitive to neurotoxins and genetic ablation of neuronal SNAREs. mRNA, but no synaptically localized protein, of neuronal SNAREs was present in IHCs. Thus, IHC exocytosis is unconventional and may operate independently of neuronal SNAREs.
Related Concept Videos
Hair Cells
Fusion of Secretory Vesicles with the Plasma Membrane
In 1993, Jim Rothman proposed that the antiparallel pairing of vesicular and transmembrane SNAREs, or...
Exocytosis
Exocytosis is the opposite of endocytosis, which brings molecules inside the cell. Sometimes, the released materials are signaling molecules. For example, neurons typically use exocytosis to release neurotransmitters. Cells also use exocytosis to insert proteins such as ion channels into their cell membranes, secrete proteins for use in the extracellular matrix, or...
Exocytosis
SNAREs and Membrane Fusion
SNAREs exist in pairs that symmetrically interact and catalyze the fusion of the lipid bilayers in vesicle and target organelle. v-SNARE in the vesicle membrane are single polypeptide chains that bind to a complementary t-SNARE, composed of 2...
Overview of Secretory Vesicles
Various proteins regulate the aggregation of molecules inside the secretory vesicles. Chromogranins...

