Verifying, Challenging, and Discovering New Synapses Among Fully EM-Reconstructed Neurons in the Leech Ganglion.

ABSTRACT: Neural circuits underpin the production of animal behavior, largely based upon the precise pattern of synaptic connectivity among the neurons involved. For large numbers of neurons, determining such "connectomes" by direct physiological means is difficult, as physiological accessibility is ultimately required to verify and characterize the function of synapses. We collected a volume of images spanning an entire ganglion of the juvenile leech nervous system via serial blockface electron microscopy (SBEM). We validated this approach by reconstructing a well-characterized circuit of motor neurons involved in the swimming behavior of the leech by locating the synapses among them. We confirm that there are multiple synaptic contacts between connected pairs of neurons in the leech, and that thes

SUBMITTER: Pipkin JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6246621 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature