The great escape of glutamate from the depth of presynaptic invaginations.
The basal pole of a cone photoreceptor is in close contact with hundreds of bipolar cell dendrites. The function and properties of these unconventional junctions are a long-standing mystery. In this issue of Neuron, DeVries and colleagues provide compelling evidence that glutamate release from a single quanta can diffuse to distant AMPA/KA receptors on these basal junctions to generate slow mEPSCs.
Matsui
Ko
K
Division of Cerebral Structure, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki 444-8787, Japan.
von Gersdorff
Henrique
H
D000818:Animals; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D017729:Presynaptic Terminals / Q000378:metabolism*; D051245:Retinal Bipolar Cells / Q000502:physiology; D017949:Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*
D018698:Glutamic Acid