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Nature Neuroscience 12, 1357–1358 (1 November 2009) | doi:10.1038/nn1109-1357

How to button a bouton with |[alpha]|2|[delta]|s

Stephan J Sigrist & Andrew J R Plested

The voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDCCs) enriched at the presynaptic active zone have long been known to be multi-protein complexes. They consist of the large, pore-forming, Ca2+-conducting α1 subunits (CaV1 and 2) surrounded by a royal suit of so-called auxiliary subunits: β-, γ- and, of special interest, α2|[delta]|-type subunits.