Figure 1

Imaging vesicle fusion with FM dyes. (Ai) Bath applied FM dye intercalates with the plasma membrane. (Aii) High frequency stimulation results in vesicular fusion followed by compensatory endocytosis, which generates FM-labelled synaptic vesicles. (Aiii) Following removal of bath applied FM-dye, a subsequent round of lower frequency stimulation results in vesicle fusion and FM-destaining. The loss of fluorescence is used as a measure of presynaptic function at associated boutons. (B) FM dye loaded boutons in the stratum radiatum of an acute hippocampal slice. At time 0 stimulation of the Schaffer-collaterals causes destaining of labelled puncta. Figure 1B: Reprinted from Neuron, 39(6), Zakharenko, S.S., S.L. Patterson, I. Dragatsis, S.O. Zeitlin, S.A. Siegelbaum, E.R. Kandel, and A. Morozov, Presynaptic BDNF required for a presynaptic but not postsynaptic component of LTP at hippocampal CA1-CA3 synapses, p975-90., Copyright (2003), with permission from Elsevier.