Cooperative function of synaptophysin and synapsin in the generation of synaptic vesicle-like clusters in non-neuronal cells.

ABSTRACT: Clusters of tightly packed synaptic vesicles (SVs) are a defining feature of nerve terminals. While SVs are mobile within the clusters, the clusters have no boundaries consistent with a liquid phase. We previously found that purified synapsin, a peripheral SV protein, can assemble into liquid condensates and trap liposomes into them. How this finding relates to the physiological formation of SV clusters in living cells remains unclear. Here, we report that synapsin alone, when expressed in fibroblasts, has a diffuse cytosolic distribution. However, when expressed together with synaptophysin, an integral SV membrane protein previously shown to be localized on small synaptic-like microvesicles when expressed in non-neuronal cells, is sufficient to organize such vesicles in clusters highly re

SUBMITTER: Park D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7801664 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature