Figures
In the vertebrate retina an unexpected inhibitory synapse is present between horizontal cells and cones.
In the vertebrate retina, horizontal cells (yellow) receive input from photoreceptors (red, green and blue cells at the top of the image), and feed back to them. This interaction is the first step in visualizing contrast enhancement. The synaptic mechanism underlying this interaction is a combination of an extremely fast and a slow component. The fast component is an ephaptic interaction. The slow component involves pannexin 1 channels and extracellular ATP hydrolysis by ecto-ATPases (horseshoe shaped green label at the right side of the image) that leads to changes in pH in the synaptic cleft. The resulting pH-change affects neurotransmitter release by the photoreceptors. See Vroman et al.
Image Credit: Rozan Vroman
Citation: (2014) PLoS Biology Issue Image | Vol. 12(5) May 2014. PLoS Biol 12(5): ev12.i05. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pbio.v12.i05
Published: May 27, 2014
Copyright: © 2014 Vroman et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
In the vertebrate retina, horizontal cells (yellow) receive input from photoreceptors (red, green and blue cells at the top of the image), and feed back to them. This interaction is the first step in visualizing contrast enhancement. The synaptic mechanism underlying this interaction is a combination of an extremely fast and a slow component. The fast component is an ephaptic interaction. The slow component involves pannexin 1 channels and extracellular ATP hydrolysis by ecto-ATPases (horseshoe shaped green label at the right side of the image) that leads to changes in pH in the synaptic cleft. The resulting pH-change affects neurotransmitter release by the photoreceptors. See Vroman et al.
Image Credit: Rozan Vroman