At each of the brain's vast number of synapses, the presynaptic nerve terminal, synaptic cleft,
and postsynaptic specialization form a transcellular unit to enable efficient transmission of …

In recent years, sensory neuroscientists have made major efforts to dissect the structure and
function of ribbon synapses which process sensory information in the eye and ear. This …

Many crowded biomolecular structures in cells and tissues are inaccessible to labelling
antibodies. To understand how proteins within these structures are arranged with nanoscale …

Tau is a microtubule-associated protein with versatile functions in the dynamic assembly of
the neuronal cytoskeleton. Four-repeat (4R-) tauopathies are a group of neurodegenerative …

Action potentials trigger neurotransmitter release at the presynaptic active zone with
spatiotemporal precision. This is supported by protein machinery that mediates synaptic …

Mechanisms regulating the surveillance and clearance of synaptic proteins are not well
understood. Intriguingly, the loss of the presynaptic active zone proteins Piccolo and …

Bassoon and Piccolo are two very large scaffolding proteins of the cytomatrix assembled at
the active zone (CAZ) where neurotransmitter is released. They share regions of high …

Fluorescence imaging techniques play a pivotal role in our understanding of the nervous
system. The emergence of various super-resolution microscopy methods and specialized …

RIMs and RIM-binding proteins (RBPs) are evolutionary conserved multidomain proteins of
presynaptic active zones that are known to recruit Ca 2+ channels; in addition, RIMs perform …

In a nerve terminal, synaptic vesicle docking and release are restricted to an active zone.
The active zone is a protein scaffold that is attached to the presynaptic plasma membrane …