Abstract
To determine the number of open Ca2+ channels necessary for transmitter release at the inhibitory basket cell–granule cell synapse in rat hippocampus, we combined presynaptic Ca2+ imaging, recording of postsynaptic currents and modeling. We found that that the opening of three or fewer Ca2+ channels triggered transmitter release. Furthermore, a small number of Ca2+ channels were able to evoke release with high temporal precision, despite stochastic Ca2+ channel opening.
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Acknowledgements
We thank J. Behrends and E. Eggermann for critically reading the manuscript and S. Becherer, I. Koeva, M. Northemann, U. Thirimanna and K. Winterhalter for technical assistance. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Sonderforschungsbereich 780/A5, TR 3/B10, and Leibniz program).
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I.B. performed experiments and analyzed data. J.B. contributed to initial Ca2+ imaging experiments. P.J. performed modeling and wrote the paper.
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Bucurenciu, I., Bischofberger, J. & Jonas, P. A small number of open Ca2+ channels trigger transmitter release at a central GABAergic synapse. Nat Neurosci 13, 19–21 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2461
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2461
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