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Nature Neuroscience 12, 111–112 (1 February 2009) | doi:10.1038/nn0209-111

Exit chloride, enter glutamate

Felix E Schweizer

Almost half a century ago, Sir Bernard Katz and colleagues conducted seminal investigations at the neuromuscular junction to show that synaptic transmission is quantized, and they proposed that the neurotransmitter-filled synaptic vesicle is the underlying unit or quantum. A detailed understanding of synaptic transmission and nervous system function must therefore include a solid concept of how vesicles are filled with transmitter.