Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
It is well established that a subset of synaptic vesicles seem to be preferentially recycled after neurotransmitter release. It has been assumed that these vesicles must cluster at the active zones of the presynaptic nerve terminal membrane so that they can rapidly release their contents in response to electrical stimulation. In their Perspective, Holt and Jahn reveal that rapidly recycled synaptic vesicles are, in fact, randomly distributed throughout the nerve terminal (Rizzoli and Betz), suggesting that they must carry some type of marker that distinguishes them from the rest of the vesicle pool.
The authors are in the Department of Neurobiology, Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, 37077 Göttingen, Germany. E-mail: rjahn{at}gwdg.de
The editors suggest the following Related Resources on Science sites:
