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Figure 2 | Neural Development

Figure 2

From: Dynamic mechanisms of neuroligin-dependent presynaptic terminal assembly in living cortical neurons

Figure 2

Modulation of synaptic vesicle protein recruitment occurs through two distinct mechanisms. (A) Model kymographs illustrating that variability in protein levels could arise from fluctuations in synaptic protein levels at individual recruitment sites (left) or through the addition/subtraction of entire recruitment sites (right). (B, C) Kymographs of STVs (green) in axons that contact neuroligin-1-expressing HEK-293 cells (magenta). (B, box) Synaptophysin-GFP levels at stable contacts are variable over the course of hours and even minutes (asterisks). (C, top box, top line) Sites of recruitment that are stable over the course of hours can be eliminated, sometimes rapidly. (C) To replace these sites, individual STVs can be captured (bottom line) and stabilized (bottom box) at contact sites. t = time after contact, scale bars = 5 μm. (D) Histograms of net changes in the densities of individual stable recruitment sites from one short imaging sequence to the next. Stable sites were defined as puncta that appeared at a given site throughout at least one short imaging sequence. The number of stable sites of recruitment varied at the majority of contacts during both the rising and plateau phases, with a bias toward puncta addition during the rising phase (left) but not the plateau phase (right).

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