Abstract
Abstract Chemical synapses are pivotal for information transfer and storage within neuronal circuity. At the same time, various diseases of the nervous system most likely originate from disturbances in synapse structure and function. Synapses are very fast, extremely controlled and effective communication devices, with synaptic vesicles fusing at specialized membrane domains associated with highly-ordered protein architectures (cytomatrices) traditionally seen using electron microscopy. Drosophila synapses with prominent cytomatrices called T-bars provide per se a highly suitable model system to apply genetic analysis to the roles of these protein architectures. Here we describe the principles behind these techniques as well as their application to the analysis of the molecular architecture of the synapse. In this context, the advent of super-resolution light microscopy methods yielding two- to 10-fold higher resolution than conventional microscopy has provided an efficient tool.
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