PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Day, JW
AU  - Hall, DH
AU  - Hall, LM
AU  - Bennett, MV
TI  - alpha-Bungarotoxin labeling and acetylcholinesterase localization at the Mauthner fiber giant synapse in the hatchetfish
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.03-02-00272.1983
DP  - 1983 Feb 01
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 272--279
VI  - 3
IP  - 2
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/3/2/272.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/3/2/272.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.1983 Feb 01; 3
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.