RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 alpha-Bungarotoxin labeling and acetylcholinesterase localization at the Mauthner fiber giant synapse in the hatchetfish
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 272
OP 279
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.03-02-00272.1983
VO 3
IS 2
A1 JW Day
A1 DH Hall
A1 LM Hall
A1 MV Bennett
YR 1983
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/3/2/272.abstract
AB Autoradiographic and histochemical techniques have been used to characterize further the pharmacology of transmission at the Mauthner fiber giant synapse of the South American hatchetfish. [125I]alpha- Bungarotoxin was applied to hatchetfish medullae and a standard autoradiographic procedure was carried out on 3- to 4-microns sections of glutaraldehyde-fixed tissue. All Mauthner fiber giant synapses, as identified by light microscopic criteria, had closely associated silver grains. Labeling was blocked by d-tubocurarine. Glutaraldehyde-fixed slices of hatchetfish medulla were stained histochemically for acetylcholinesterase; all giant synapses that could be identified in the light microscope showed heavy deposits of reaction product. Staining was blocked by diisopropyl-fluorophosphate, which inhibits both pseudocholinesterase and acetylcholinesterase, but was not blocked by tetraisopropylpyrophosphoramide, a specific pseudocholinesterase inhibitor. This evidence strongly supports the suggestion that the Mauthner fiber giant synapse is nicotinic cholinergic.