Morphological correlates of functionally defined synaptic vesicle populations
Thomas Schikorski
& Charles F. Stevens
Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Molecular Neurobiology Lab, The Salk Institute, 10010 N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037, USA
Correspondence should be addressed to Charles F. Stevens stevens@salk.edu
By combining photoconversion of FM1-43-stained vesicles and electron microscopy of hippocampal synapses, we find evidence that the population of morphologically docked synaptic vesicles corresponds to the release-ready neurotransmitter quanta. Furthermore, those synaptic vesicles that are participating in cycles of exo- and endocytosis tend to be closer to the active zone than vesicles that are being held in reserve.
