Distinctive synaptic structural motifs link excitatory retinal interneurons to diverse postsynaptic partner types.

ABSTRACT: Neurons make converging and diverging synaptic connections with distinct partner types. Whether synapses involving separate partners demonstrate similar or distinct structural motifs is not yet well understood. We thus used serial electron microscopy in mouse retina to map output synapses of cone bipolar cells (CBCs) and compare their structural arrangements across bipolar types and postsynaptic partners. Three presynaptic configurations emerge-single-ribbon, ribbonless, and multiribbon synapses. Each CBC type exploits these arrangements in a unique combination, a feature also found among rabbit ON CBCs. Though most synapses are dyads, monads and triads are also seen. Altogether, mouse CBCs exhibit at least six motifs, and each CBC type uses these in a stereotypic pattern. Moreover, synaps

SUBMITTER: Yu WQ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9946794 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature