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Related Concept Videos

Fusion of Secretory Vesicles with the Plasma Membrane01:26

Fusion of Secretory Vesicles with the Plasma Membrane

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Proteins and neurotransmitters in secretory vesicles can be released from a cell upon vesicle docking, priming, and fusion with the plasma membrane. Vesicles are docked and primed in preparation for the quick exocytosis of their contents in response to a stimulus. The fusion process is mainly carried out by a SNAP Receptor or SNARE complex, consisting of synaptobrevin, syntaxin-1, and SNAP-25.
In 1993, Jim Rothman proposed that the antiparallel pairing of vesicular and transmembrane SNAREs, or...
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SNAREs and Membrane Fusion01:43

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Once a transport vesicle has recognized its target organelle, the vesicular membrane needs to fuse with the target membrane to unload the cargo. Transmembrane proteins called SNAREs present on organelle membranes and their vesicles, mediate vesicle fusion.
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Chemical Synapses01:26

Chemical Synapses

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Chemical synapses are specialized sites between two neurons or between a neuron and a non-neuronal cell like a muscle, glandular or sensory cell.
Because chemical synapses depend on the release of neurotransmitter molecules from synaptic vesicles to pass on their signal, there is an approximately one millisecond delay between when the axon potential reaches the presynaptic terminal and when the neurotransmitter leads to opening of postsynaptic ion channels. Additionally, this signaling is...
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Chemical Synapses01:26

Chemical Synapses

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Chemical synapses are specialized sites between two neurons or between a neuron and a non-neuronal cell like a muscle, glandular or sensory cell.
Because chemical synapses depend on the release of neurotransmitter molecules from synaptic vesicles to pass on their signal, there is an approximately one millisecond delay between when the axon potential reaches the presynaptic terminal and when the neurotransmitter leads to opening of postsynaptic ion channels. Additionally, this signaling is...
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Electrical Synapses01:28

Electrical Synapses

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Electrical synapses found in all nervous systems play important and unique roles. In these synapses, the presynaptic and postsynaptic membranes are very close together (3.5 nm) and are actually physically connected by channel proteins forming gap junctions.
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Vesicular Tubular Clusters01:45

Vesicular Tubular Clusters

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After budding out from the ER membrane, some COPII vesicles lose their coat and fuse with one another to form larger vesicles and interconnected tubules called vesicular tubular clusters or VTCs. These clusters constitute a compartment at the ER-Golgi interface known as ERGIC (Endoplasmic Reticulum Golgi Intermediate Compartment). The ERGIC is a mobile membrane-bound cargo transport system that sorts proteins secreted from ER and delivers them to the Golgi.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 4, 2026

An Optical Assay for Synaptic Vesicle Recycling in Cultured Neurons Overexpressing Presynaptic Proteins
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Sparse force-bearing bridges between neighboring synaptic vesicles.

John F Wesseling1,2, Sébastien Phan3, Eric A Bushong3

  • 1Instituto de Neurociencias, CSIC-UMH, San Juan de Alicante, Spain. johnfwesseling@gmail.com.

Brain Structure & Function
|November 1, 2019
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Vesicle bridges, stable structures in synaptic terminals, are less frequent in synapsin knockouts. This suggests synapsin proteins are crucial for forming or stabilizing these important synaptic vesicle connections.

Keywords:
PresynapticRRPReserveSupply-rate depressionTomography

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cell Biology
  • Structural Biology

Background:

  • Vesicles cluster near active zones in synaptic terminals for exocytosis.
  • Electron-dense structures, termed bridges, are observed between some neighboring synaptic vesicles.
  • The in vivo stability and existence of these vesicle bridges have been debated, with synapsin proteins previously implicated.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the in vivo stability of synaptic vesicle bridges.
  • To determine the role of synapsin proteins in the formation or stabilization of vesicle bridges.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized electron tomography to visualize synaptic vesicle arrangements in wildtype and synapsin knockout mice.
  • Analyzed the distances between neighboring vesicles in tomograms to assess bridge stability under experimental conditions.

Main Results:

  • Synaptic vesicle bridges were found to be less frequent in synapsin knockout samples compared to wildtype.
  • Analysis of vesicle neighbor distances in wildtype tomograms demonstrated that bridges can withstand centrifugal forces induced by aldehyde fixation, indicating stability.
  • These findings confirm the presence of stable vesicle bridges in vivo.

Conclusions:

  • Synaptic vesicle bridges are stable structures within synaptic terminals.
  • Synapsin proteins play a significant role in the formation and/or stabilization of these synaptic vesicle bridges.