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The following seminar will only be available remotely.
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Jose Rizo-Rey (Josep Rizo), Virginia Lazenby O'Hara Chair in Biochemistry; Professor, Departments of Biophysics, Biochemistry, and Pharmacology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX, will give a talk on "Mechanisms underlying the exquisite regulation of neurotransmitter release."

ABSTRACT

An increasingly clear picture of the molecular mechanism of calcium-triggered neurotransmitter release is emerging after three decades of research. The SNAREs syntaxin-1, SNAP-25 and synaptobrevin form a tight SNARE complex that plays a critical role in fusing the synaptic vesicle and plasma membranes by bringing them together. Synaptotagmin-1 acts as the major calcium sensor that triggers release in a tight interplay with complexins. The SNARE complex is disassembled after fusion by NSF with the assistance of SNAPs. Munc18-1 and Munc13s organize SNARE complex assembly by an NSF-SNAP resistant mechanism whereby Munc18-1 binds to synaptobrevin and to a self-inhibited closed conformation of syntaxin-1, forming a template for SNARE complex assembly, while Munc13s bridge the synaptic vesicle and plasma membranes and open syntaxin-1. This pathway of SNARE complex assembly enables a wide variety of modes of regulation of release during presynaptic plasticity processes that depend on Munc13s and underlie multiple forms of information processing in the brain. Overall, the available data show that the exquisite regulation of release depends on a delicate balance between inhibitory and stimulatory interactions among the components of the release machinery.