Single-vesicle analysis on the molecular mechanism of neurotransmitter…

Ca2+-triggered, synchronized fusion of synaptic vesicles underlies communication between neurons, constituting the molecular machinery for how we sense, think, and learn. Scientific focus is now rapidly moving to how fusion regulators control the synaptic vesicle fusion process precisely at the millisecond time scale. Although the single-molecule biophysics techniques are creating unprecedented opportunities to observe individual biochemical events previously hidden in ensemble measurements, their applications have been primarily confined to the studies on genetic materials (DNA/RNA) and proteins interacting with them. In this talk, I report recent novel results such as fusion step-specific switching of complexin function, demonstrating how the single molecule fluorescence technique finds its way toward the molecular neurobiology.