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Synaptophysin: leading actor or walk‐on role in synaptic vesicle exocytosis?
Author(s) -
Valtorta Flavia,
Pennuto Maria,
Bonanomi Dario,
Benfenati Fabio
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.20012
Subject(s) - synaptophysin , exocytosis , endocytosis , synaptic vesicle , microbiology and biotechnology , vesicle fusion , biology , neurotransmitter , munc 18 , biogenesis , neuroscience , vesicle , gene , secretion , genetics , receptor , endocrinology , immunology , membrane , central nervous system , immunohistochemistry
Synaptophysin (Syp) was the first synaptic vesicle (SV) protein to be cloned. Since its discovery in 1985, it has been used by us and by many laboratories around the world as an invaluable marker to study the distribution of synapses in the brain and to uncover the basic features of the life cycle of SVs. Although single gene ablation of Syp does not lead to an overt phenotype, a large body of experimental data both in vitro and in vivo indicate that Syp (alone or in association with homologous proteins) is involved in multiple, important aspects of SV exo‐endocytosis, including regulation of SNARE assembly into the fusion core complex, formation of the fusion pore initiating neurotransmitter release, activation of SV endocytosis and SV biogenesis. In this article, we summarise the main results of the studies on Syp carried out by our and other laboratories, and explain why we believe that Syp plays a major role in SV trafficking. BioEssays 26:445–453, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.