Topic: Structural Insights into the Mechanisms of Neurotransmitter Release and Information Processing in the Brain
Speaker: Prof. Josep Rizo
Department of Biochemistry，University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
The release of neurotransmitters by Ca2+-triggered synaptic vesicle exocytosis is a key event in interneuronal communication, and regulation of the release efficiency during distinct processes of presynaptic plasticity underlies multiple forms of information processing in the brain. Release is governed by a complex protein machinery that includes components with homologues in all types of intracellular membrane fusion, such as the SM protein Munc18-1 and the SNARE proteins synaptobrevin, syntaxin-1 and SNAP-25. In addition, neurotransmitter release depends on diverse proteins such as Munc13, synaptotagmin-1 and complexin, which have specialized functions that confer the exquisitely tight regulation of this process. Studies of the three-dimensional structures and interactions of these proteins are yielding key insights into the mechanisms of neurotransmitter release and its regulation during presynaptic plasticity processes. An overall view of this field together with our most exciting new results will be presented, with particular emphasis on how an authoinhibited conformation of syntaxin-1 provides a key point for modulation of neurotransmitter release.
Date: 4:00PM-5:00PM, Mar. 27th (Tuesday)
Venue: B323, Medical Science Building，Tsinghua University
