© 2004 AAAS
After each neurotransmitter release, MK801, an open-channel blocker that can only block a channel that has been activated, decreases initial current (which has been normalized for wild type and mutant cells). In the colocalization model, VGLUT1 and VGLUT2 occupy the same vesicles filling them partially. The commingling model proposes that transporters occupy distinct vesicles in the same synapse. The segregation model proposes that the transporters are found in different synapses.
A brain without glutamate, the major excitatory neurotransmitter in mammals, is quite literally unthinkable. Yet, knockout mice lacking the crucial vesicular glutamate transporter, VGLUT1, can live for up to a few months. This unexpected finding has enabled two research groups to investigate the function of VGLUT1.
With potential links to learning and memory, as well as neurological diseases such as epilepsy, approaching glutamate transmission through the protein believed to load it into vesicles provides a useful starting ...
