PROBABILITY OF QUANTAL SECRETION AT NEUROMUSCULAR SYNAPSES

Funding Activity

Website
http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/107211

Funding Status
Closed

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Funded Activity Summary

The classical preparation for the study of synaptic transmission is the amphibian neuromuscular junction, for which there is the largest body of experimental data. This synapse was instrumental in the discovery that transmitters are released in packets or quanta, that this occurs at specialized release sites in the nerve terminal, and that receptor molecules on the muscles cells are strategically placed to receive the transmitter. Our work on this synapse has shown that each of these release sites have different probabilities for the secretion of a quantum and that this probability is correlated with the width of the release site. More recently we have shown that, whilst the size of a quantum does not vary between adjacent release sites, the area over which the quantum is released does vary between sites. The probability of quantal secretion is proportional to this area, as is the number of vesicles present at the release site. In this project we intend to relate this probability of secretion to the proteins that regulate the release of a quantum and in particular how these proteins interact to determine the time course of increase in probability at a release site after the passage of an impulse. The affects of trains of impulses on this probability are also to be delineated, in particular how the calcium which enters the terminal during these trains determines a long-term enhancement in probability after the train has ceased. This research will provide a molecular description of secretion from motor-nerve terminals.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2000

End Date: 01-01-2002

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $334,232.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Medical parasitology

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis | Calcium | Electrophysiology | Motoneurone diseases | Myasthenia gravis | Neuromuscular | Neurotransmission | Vesicle-associated proteins

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