M1 Material

Question 1

Types of Glia?

Answer 1

• Astrocytes
• Oligodendrocytes
• Microglia
• Schwann cells (PNS)

Question 2

Synaptic vesicle cycle

Answer 2

Docking, priming, fusion, endocytosis

Question 3

Excitatory vs Inhibitory Nts

Answer 3

EX: glutamate, acetylcholine, dopamine, serotonin. IN: GABA and glycine

Question 4

4 types of active zones

Answer 4

Dense projections, T-bar structure, ribbon synapse, central synapse

Question 5

Reasons why synapses differ in release probabilities

Answer 5

1. # of active zones
2. # and type of Ca channels participating in release
3. size of vesicles
4. how close Ca channels are to vesicles
5. vesicles in RRP
6. amount of presynaptic protein for vesicle priming and Ca sensitivity

Question 6

5 core active zone proteins

Answer 6

RIM, RIM-BP, ELKS, Liprin, Munc13

Question 7

5 experimental approaches for studying synapse:

Answer 7

Electrophysiology, Electron microscopy, fluorescence imaging, molecular biology

Question 8

Presynaptic proteins

Answer 8

SNARES (synaptobrevin/VAMP, SNAP-25, Syntaxin), Munc18, Synaptotagmin, Complexin

Question 9

Why is synaptic vesicle recycling cruical?

Answer 9

Synapses contain a limited number of synaptic vesicles and replacing them by de novo synthesis from the cell body would be too slow

The absence of membrane retrieval would increase the area of the presynaptic plasma membrane.

Question 10

4 pathways for retrieval of synaptic vesicle membranes:

Answer 10

Clathrin mediated endocytosis

Kiss-and-run

Activity dependent bulk endocytosis

Ultrafast endocytosis

Question 11

Potassium channels are cruical regulators of:

Answer 11

Neuronal excitability

Setting resting membrane potentials and firing thresholds

Repolarizing action potentials

Limiting excitability

Question 12

Proposed mechanisms for facilitation:

Answer 12

Residual Ca hypothesis

Residual Ca binds to a facilitation sensor

Spike broadening: inactivation of K channels

Calcium current facilitation

Buffer saturation