Caltech Bi 211 Fall 1997

Revised 10/2/99
Course announcement
Tentative Schedule
Requirements
Session 6
Tuesday
11/6
7:00 PM
234 Kerckhoff
The Synapse as a Biophysical Machine
1 . Ming Li
2.  Chi-Sung Chiu
3. Daw-An Wu

Readings in Hille

None.

Additional Required Reading

Stiles, J. R., I. V. Kovyazina, E. E. Salpeter and M. M. Salpeter 1999. The temperature sensitivity of miniature endplate currents is mostly governed by channel gating: evidence from optimized recordings and Monte Carlo simulations. Biophys J. 77:1177-87.
The state of the art in simulating synaptic transmission
 Paper Local source

Otis, T., S. Zhang and L. O. Trussell 1996. Direct measurement of AMPA receptor desensitization induced by glutamatergic synaptic transmission. J Neurosci. 16:7496-504.
Paper    Local source
Introducing the caged neurotransmitter approach

von Gersdorff, H., T. Sakaba, K. Berglund and M. Tachibana 1998. Submillisecond kinetics of glutamate release from a sensory synapse. Neuron. 21:1177-88.
 Paper    Local source
Capacitance measurements reveal synaptic vesicle release

Bunin, M. A. and R. M. Wightman 1998. Quantitative evaluation of 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) neuronal release and uptake: an investigation of extrasynaptic transmission. J Neurosci. 18:4854-60.
 Paper    Local source
Electrochemcial measurements can monitor release of some transmitters

Diamond JS, and Jahr CE (1997) Transporters buffer synaptically released glutamate on a submillisecond time scale. J Neurosci 17:4672-87.
 Paper   Local source
Advanced biophysical reasoning reveals the time course of transmitter in the synaptic cleft.