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Tomographic Reconstruction of the Hair Cell Ribbon Synapse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

David Lenzi ,
Jonathan W. Runyeon ,
John Crum ,
Mark H. Ellisman  and
William M. Roberts
David Lenzi
Affiliation:
Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403.
Jonathan W. Runyeon
Affiliation:
Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403.
John Crum
Affiliation:
Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403.
Mark H. Ellisman
Affiliation:
National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, and Department of Neurosciences,University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0608.
William M. Roberts
Affiliation:
Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403.
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Extract

Hair cells, the mechanotransducers of the inner ears and lateral lines of vertebrates offer an excellent preparation for the study of presynaptic mechanisms at fast chemical synapses. They offer the compact, almost cylindrical shape of an epithelial cell without entangling dendrites and axons, and make afferent synapses directly from the cell body. The biology of hair cells demands an unusually high performance of the output synapse, requiring continuous, and very quickly modulated transmitter exocytosis. Release follows the small receptor potential generated by the transduction apparatus; more transmitter is released upon depolarization, less after hyperpolarization. In some hair cells, transmission can phase-lock to kilohertz stimulus frequencies, preserving temporal information across the synapse.

We have exploited the synaptic terminal-like features of these cells to explore both the physiology and ultrastructure of the machinery underlying neurotransmitter release.

Type
Unique Approaches In Imaging, Computation and Communication for Characterization of the 3D Cell & Organelles I
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 4 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis '98, Microscopy Society of America 56th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 32nd Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia July 12-16, 1998 , July 1998 , pp. 426 - 427
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

1. Parsons, T.D. et al. Neuron (1994) 13, 875–883CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. Supported by NIH grants NS27142 to WMR, PHS RR04050 to MHE, and DRF grants and MDA postdoctoral fellowship to DL.