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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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Exocytosis00:50

Exocytosis

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Exocytosis is a process that releases molecules outside the cell. Like other bulk transport mechanisms, exocytosis requires energy.
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...
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Overview of Secretory Vesicles01:33

Overview of Secretory Vesicles

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Secretory vesicles, also known as dense core vesicles (DCVs), are membrane-bound vesicles that transport secretory proteins, such as hormones or neurotransmitters. Regulated secretory vesicles transport proteins from the trans-Golgi network to the exterior of the cell. Proteins present in regulated secretory vesicles are required to be rapidly exocytosed in large amounts upon a specific stimulus.
Various proteins regulate the aggregation of molecules inside the secretory vesicles. Chromogranins...
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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.
With the help of motor proteins such...
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Pinching-off of Coated Vesicles01:32

Pinching-off of Coated Vesicles

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Vesicle budding is orchestrated by distinct cytosolic proteins such as adaptor proteins, coat proteins, and GTPases. To initiate vesicle budding, membrane-bending proteins containing crescent-shaped BAR domains bind to the lipid heads in the bilayer and distort the membrane to form a protein-coated vesicle bud. Adaptors proteins such as AP2 for clathrin-coated vesicles can nucleate on the deformed membrane. Finally, coat proteins such as clathrin or COPI and COPII assemble into a coat forming...
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Clathrin Coated Vesicles01:12

Clathrin Coated Vesicles

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Clathrin-coated vesicles use endocytosis to transport receptors and lysosomal hydrolases from the Golgi to the lysosome in the late secretory pathway. Clathrin-mediated endocytosis was the first described endocytic process, and Clathrin-coated vesicles remain one of the most well-studied transport vesicles. The molecular machinery that generates clathrin-coated vesicles comprises over 50 proteins that precisely coordinate vesicle formation. Cell surface receptors concentrated in indented sites...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 8, 2025

Measuring Synaptic Vesicle Endocytosis in Cultured Hippocampal Neurons
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Measuring Synaptic Vesicle Endocytosis in Cultured Hippocampal Neurons

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Morphofunctional changes at the active zone during synaptic vesicle exocytosis.

Julika Radecke1,2,3,4, Raphaela Seeger1,4, Anna Kádková2

  • 1Institute of Anatomy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.

EMBO Reports
|March 6, 2023
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Synaptic vesicle (SV) fusion involves membrane curvature changes and tether formation during early fusion, followed by pore opening and collapse in late fusion. Stimulation and spontaneous release rates influence these dynamic events.

Keywords:
SNAREcryo-electron tomographysynapsesynaptic vesicles

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Examination of Synaptic Vesicle Recycling Using FM Dyes During Evoked, Spontaneous, and Miniature Synaptic Activities
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Live Imaging of Synaptic Vesicle Recycling in the Neuromuscular Junction of Dissected Larval Zebrafish
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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cell Biology
  • Biophysics

Background:

  • Synaptic vesicle (SV) fusion with the plasma membrane (PM) is crucial for neurotransmission but its intermediate steps are poorly understood.
  • The impact of sustained high or low exocytosis activity on these fusion intermediates remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the dynamic morphological changes during synaptic vesicle fusion at high resolution.
  • To determine how exocytosis activity and specific mutations affect SV-PM interactions and fusion intermediates.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized spray-mixing plunge-freezing cryo-electron tomography for near-native, high-resolution imaging of synaptic fusion events.
  • Analyzed membrane curvature, tether formation, and inter-SV connections during different fusion stages.

Main Results:

  • Identified distinct early (point contact, tether formation) and late (pore opening, SV collapse) fusion stages.
  • Observed increased tethering and inter-SV connectors during early fusion, followed by connector loss and SV movement in late fusion.
  • Demonstrated that SNAP-25 mutations alter connector formation and tethering, impacting SVs near the PM.

Conclusions:

  • Synaptic stimulation triggers dynamic tether formation and connector dissolution, correlating with SV transition between functional pools.
  • Exocytosis activity and spontaneous release rates modulate these morphological events, providing insights into synaptic vesicle trafficking and fusion regulation.