Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 17, 2026

The Fibular Nerve Injury Method: A Reliable Assay to Identify and Test Factors That Repair Neuromuscular Junctions
Published on: August 11, 2016
Are unreliable release mechanisms conserved from NMJ to CNS?
Tyler B Tarr1, Markus Dittrich, Stephen D Meriney
1Department of Neuroscience, Center for Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.
Abstract:
The frog neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is a strong and reliable synapse because, during activation, sufficient neurotransmitter is released to trigger a postsynaptic action potential (AP). Recent evidence supports the hypothesis that this reliability emerges from the assembly of thousands of unreliable single vesicle release sites. The mechanisms that govern this unreliability include a paucity of voltage-gated calcium channels, a low probability of calcium channel opening during an AP, and the rare triggering of synaptic vesicle fusion even when a calcium channel does open and allows calcium flux. Here, we discuss the evidence that these unreliable single vesicle release sites may be the fundamental building blocks of many types of synapses in both the peripheral and central nervous system (PNS and CNS, respectively).
Related Concept Videos
Neurogenesis and Regeneration of Nervous Tissue
The Neuromuscular Junction
Neuromuscular Junction And Blockade
Nonsense-mediated mRNA Decay
Usually, Upf3 binds to an Exon Junction Complex (EJC) at mRNA splice sites. If a ribosome fully translates the mRNA,...
Excitatory and Inhibitory Effects of Neurotransmitters
Neurochemical Transmission: Sites of Drug Action

