Enlargement of Ribbons in Zebrafish Hair Cells Increases Calcium Currents But Disrupts Afferent Spontaneous Activity and Timing of Stimulus Onset.

ABSTRACT: In sensory hair cells of auditory and vestibular organs, the ribbon synapse is required for the precise encoding of a wide range of complex stimuli. Hair cells have a unique presynaptic structure, the synaptic ribbon, which organizes both synaptic vesicles and calcium channels at the active zone. Previous work has shown that hair-cell ribbon size is correlated with differences in postsynaptic activity. However, additional variability in postsynapse size presents a challenge to determining the specific role of ribbon size in sensory encoding. To selectively assess the impact of ribbon size on synapse function, we examined hair cells in transgenic zebrafish that have enlarged ribbons, without postsynaptic alterations. Morphologically, we found that enlarged ribbons had more associated vesicl

SUBMITTER: Sheets L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5490065 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature