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The Journal of Neuroscience, January 5, 2005, 25(1):223-232; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3688-04.2005
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Cellular/Molecular
Quantal Size Is Independent of the Release Probability at Hippocampal Excitatory Synapses
Ágota A. Biró,
Noémi B. Holderith, and
Zoltan Nusser
Laboratory of Cellular Neurophysiology, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1083 Budapest, Hungary
Short-term synaptic plasticity changes the reliability of transmission during repetitive activation and allows different neuronal ensembles to encode distinct features of action potential trains. Identifying the mechanisms and the locus of expression of such plasticity is essential for understanding neuronal information processing. To determine the quantal parameters and the locus of alterations during short-term plasticity of cortical glutamatergic synapses, EPSCs were evoked in hippocampal oriens-alveus interneurons by CA1 pyramidal cells. The robust short-term facilitation of this connection allowed us to examine the transmission under functionally relevant but widely different release probability (Pr) conditions. Paired whole-cell recordings permitted the functional and post hoc morphological characterization of the synapses. To determine the quantal size (q), the Pr, and the number of functional release sites (NF), two independent quantal analysis methods were used. Light and electron microscopy were performed to identify the number of synaptic junctions (NEM) between the recorded cells. The mean number of functional release sites (NF(f) = 2.9 ± 0.4; n = 8) as inferred from a simple binomial model with no quantal variance agreed well with the mean of NEM (2.8 ± 0.8; n = 6), but NF(f) never matched NEM when they were compared in individual pairs; however, including quantal variance in the model improved the functional prediction of the structural data. Furthermore, an increased Pr (4.8 ± 0.8-fold) fully accounted for the marked short-term facilitation of EPSCs (5.0 ± 0.7-fold), and q was independent of Pr. Our results are consistent with the "one-release site, one-vesicle" hypothesis.
Key words: patch clamp; paired recordings; electron microscopy; quantal analysis; hippocampus; interneurons
Received Sep 7, 2004;
revised October 27, 2004;
accepted November 15, 2004.
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