IUBio

Neurotransmitter Release ?

holmes at cneuro.zool.ohiou.edu holmes at cneuro.zool.ohiou.edu
Thu Jan 28 08:03:31 EST 1999


Robert M. Mihalek (mihalek at FORMULA1.smtp.anes.upmc.edu) wrote:

> There was a report in one of the "big" journals (Science, I think) a
> few months back describing the co-release of glycine and GABA
> (gamma-amino butyric acid) from the same pre-synaptic nerve terminal.
> Do a PubMed search at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov and enter in "glycine AND GABA"
> for your search terms and you'll pull it out.



Yeah, it was the July 17, 1998 issue of Science 281:419-424.

There are lots of examples of peptides being co-localized with 
neurotransmitters, but the packaging and release seem to be 
independent.  However, in this study the authors found that 
two neurotransmitters, glycine and GABA, were co-released and 
they present evidence suggesting that both are packaged in the same
vesicle (the vesicle transporter transports both glycine and GABA).

It is interesting to speculate whether or not different processes
might release different proportions of GABA and glycine (a question
not addressed by this study), and how co-release might allow for 
more precise regulation (in this case, of motor coordination) because
of the different time courses of glycine and GABA responses.

--Bill Holmes
  holmes at ohiou.edu



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