THE SYNAPSE

Where nerve impulses convert to neurotransmitters

The Sanger Institute

The synapse is where the nerve impulse passes from one cell to the next The electrical signal (the action potential) stops and a chemical signal takes over to cross the gap between the cells The chemical messenger is called a neurotransmitter The neurotransmitter crosses the gap by diffusion, which creates a small delay

2008 Paul Billiet ODWS

Designer signals
The advantage of using neurotransmitter is that the nerve impulse can be given some more specificity Neurotransmitters can also control the operation of the nervous system by inhibition or excitation Many drugs that try to cure problems in the nervous system operate at synapses

2008 Paul Billiet ODWS

Neurotransmitters and hormones

In many ways neurotransmitters are hormones working over a very short distance (about 20nm) Some of them work both at synapses and in the circulatory system

2008 Paul Billiet ODWS

1. Action potential arrives at terminal button Vesicle storing neurotransmitter

Ca2+ channel

Membrane receptor for neurotransmitter

2008 Paul Billiet ODWS

Dept of Biology, Saint Louis University

2. Depolarisation opens Ca2+ channels Ca2+ enters terminal button

3. Ca2+ stimulates vesicles to fuse with membrane

Ca2+

Ca2+

Ca2+

Ca2+

4. Exocytosis of neurotransmitter It diffuses 20nm across the synaptic cleft

2008 Paul Billiet ODWS

The passage across the synapse

An action potential travels down an axon to the terminal buttons or synaptic knobs at the end The action potential depolarises the membrane of a terminal button causing voltage-gated Ca2+ channels to open Ca2+ ions flood into the terminal button This stimulates hundreds of synaptic vesicles, packed with neurotransmitter, to fuse with the membrane of the terminal button By exocytosis The Ca2+ ions are then pumped out again

2008 Paul Billiet ODWS

5. Neurotransmitter receptor sites on the postsynaptic membrane are ion channels. They open when the neurotransmitter binds

6. Localised depolarisation as ions leak in or out of membrane.

2008 Paul Billiet ODWS

The passage across the synapse

The neurotransmitter diffuses across cleft to postsynaptic membrane The neurotransmitter molecules bind with specific receptor sites on postsynaptic membrane The receptor sites are part of a ligand-gated ion channel These channels let Na+ ions in or K+ ions out causing localised depolarisation of the membrane

2008 Paul Billiet ODWS

7. Action potential generated which travels down the postsynaptic cell.

2008 Paul Billiet ODWS

8. Neurotransmitter destroyed by enzymes in the cleft. Stops signal being perpetuated.

A new action potential

If the localised depolarisations build up to the nerve cell threshold, a full action potential will be produced This will travel away, down the postsynaptic neurone The action of the neurotransmitters stops: (i) as they dilute by diffusion in the synaptic cleft (ii) by hydrolysis through the action of enzymes there Important: The signal must not be perpetuated indefinitely

2008 Paul Billiet ODWS

The neuromuscular junction is a synapse

The motor end plate is the terminal button of a motor neurone that makes contact with a muscle cell The motor end plate releases the neurotransmitter acetylcholine that ultimately causes the muscle cell to contract

2008 Paul Billiet ODWS

Motor end plates

David B. Fankhauser, Ph.D., Professor of Biology and Chemistry, University of Cincinnati Clermont College