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Eyes without a ribbon
Author(s) -
Moser Tobias
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.15252/embj.201694205
Subject(s) - biology , ribbon synapse , ribbon , exocytosis , glutamatergic , retinal , neuroscience , anatomy , microbiology and biotechnology , synaptic vesicle , genetics , botany , glutamate receptor , materials science , composite material , vesicle , receptor , membrane
Eye and ear employ specialized glutamatergic synapses that feature an elaborate electron‐dense projection—the synaptic ribbon. Despite major efforts, the function of the synaptic ribbon has remained enigmatic, because its brick‐stone‐like core‐component RIBEYE has remained hard to crack genetically. In an elegant study, Maxeiner et al ([Maxeiner S, 2016]) genetically deleted RIBEYE in mice. This abolished retinal ribbons and impaired exocytosis at the presynaptic active zone of bipolar cells.