{"id":127139,"date":"2025-10-17T02:57:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T02:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/127139\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T02:57:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T02:57:06","slug":"cryo-et-reveals-kiss-shrink-run-neurotransmission-mechanism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/127139\/","title":{"rendered":"Cryo-ET Reveals \u201cKiss-Shrink-Run\u201d Neurotransmission Mechanism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Neuron<\/a>Credit: nopparit \/\tiStock \/ Getty Images Plus<\/p>\n

For decades, neuroscientists have debated whether synaptic vesicles \u201ckiss-and-run\u201d or do an irreversible \u201cfull collapse\u201d when releasing neurotransmitters. Now, a team in China has frozen that moment in time\u2014literally\u2014and revealed a third act in the dance of neuronal communication.<\/p>\n

Cracking the code of neurotransmission<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our brains rely on fast, precisely timed synaptic transmissions between neurons. At the heart of this process is synaptic vesicle (SV) exocytosis\u2014the release of neurotransmitters triggered by an electrical signal, or action potential. But despite its central role, the structural and biophysical mechanics of SV release have remained elusive. Was it a fleeting \u201ckiss-and-run\u201d or a full-on \u201ccollapse\u201d into the presynaptic membrane? The answer has evaded scientists for over half a century, and a team of researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) set out to understand this mechanism through a newly developed method.<\/p>\n

Published in Science, the study titled \u201cKiss-shrink-run unifies mechanisms for synaptic vesicle exocytosis and hyperfast recycling<\/a>,\u201d introduces a new biophysical model that reconciles the long-standing dichotomy. SV release, it turns out, is neither purely transient nor wholly irreversible\u2014it\u2019s a hybrid process with a critical shrinking phase.<\/p>\n

Understanding this mechanism isn\u2019t just academic\u2014it\u2019s foundational. The fidelity and efficiency of synaptic transmission underpins neuronal communication\u2014everything from learning and memory to neurodegenerative disease. A clearer picture could unlock new therapeutic avenues and deepen our grasp of brain function. The team of researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) set out to understand this mechanism and developed a time-resolved, cellular cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) platform. By combining optogenetic stimulation, or using light to trigger neural activity, with high-speed plunge-freezing, they captured over 1,000 tomograms of intact excitatory synapses at intervals from 0 to 300 milliseconds post-action potential.<\/p>\n

This millisecond-scale imaging allowed the team to reconstruct the full timeline of SV exocytosis and rapid recycling. Within just 4 milliseconds, vesicles formed a ~4 nm fusion pore (\u201ckiss\u201d), then shrank to half their original surface area (\u201cshrink\u201d). By 70 milliseconds, most were recycled via the \u201crun\u201d pathway, while others underwent \u201cfull-collapse\u201d fusion with the presynaptic membrane.<\/p>\n

A new mechanism: \u201ckiss-shrink-run\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This \u201ckiss-shrink-run\u201d mechanism not only explains the structural basis for rapid and reliable neurotransmission but also opens new doors for studying synaptic plasticity and brain function and disorders. The cryo-ET technique itself sets a new standard for in situ analysis of membrane dynamics and molecular interactions with unmatched spatiotemporal resolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: nopparit \/ iStock \/ Getty Images Plus For decades, neuroscientists have debated whether synaptic vesicles \u201ckiss-and-run\u201d or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[18,19,17,5,133,5632,39996],"class_list":{"0":"post-127139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-topics","14":"tag-translational-medicine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}