title: Multivesicular release and saturation of glutamatergic signalling at retinal ribbon synapses.
abstract: Pronounced multivesicular release (MVR) occurs at the ribbon synapses of sensory neurones that signal via graded potential changes. As MVR increases the likelihood of postsynaptic receptor saturation, it is of interest to consider how sensory synapses overcome this problem and use MVR to encode signals of widely varying intensities. Here, I discuss three postsynaptic mechanisms that permit three different retinal synapses to utilize MVR.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Ophthalmology and Physiology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 303 E. Chicago Ave, Tarry 5-715, Chicago, IL 60611, USA. j-singer@northwestern.edu
authors.forename: Joshua H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Singer
mesh_terms: D025042:Amacrine Cells / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D005971:Glutamates / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D012160:Retina / Q000502:physiology*; D017949:Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology; D017948:Retinal Rod Photoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D005971:Glutamates