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Bilingual neurons release glutamate and GABA

Nature Neuroscience volume 17, pages 1432–1434 (2014)Cite this article

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A study finds evidence supporting co-release of glutamate and GABA, excitatory and inhibitory fast neurotransmitters, from a single axon terminal in neurons of the ventral tegmental area that project to the lateral habenula.

Dale's principle, promoted by Sir John Eccles1, postulates that the same chemical transmitter is released from all of the synaptic terminals of a neuron. In other words, each neuron produces a single neurotransmitter and the identity of this neurotransmitter never changes. Those neurons that release glutamate excite their postsynaptic partners, those that release GABA inhibit them and those that release dopamine 'modulate' them, for example, by modifying the efficacy of synaptic plasticity. Increasing evidence suggests, however, that Dale's principle does not always hold true: some neurons release multiple neurotransmitters2,3 and some change their neurotransmitter identity4. In a study published in this issue of Nature Neuroscience, Root et al.5 add yet another astonishing case: a large fraction of rodent ventral tegmental area (VTA) neurons that project to lateral habenula (LHb) co-release glutamate and GABA, two main excitatory and inhibitory fast neurotransmitters, from single axon terminals.

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Figure 1: LHb-innervating VTA neurons co-release glutamate and GABA from single axon terminals.

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  1. Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Naoshige Uchida is in the Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,

    Naoshige Uchida

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  1. Naoshige Uchida
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Correspondence to Naoshige Uchida.

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Uchida, N. Bilingual neurons release glutamate and GABA. Nat Neurosci 17, 1432–1434 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3840

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