THE SYNAPSE

Where nerve
impulses convert to
neurotransmitters

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS www.sanger.ac.uk/.../gfx/070305_synapse_300.jpg

 The synapse
 A gap (about 20nm)
 Where the nerve impulse passes from one
cell to the next
 The electrical signal (the action potential)
 a chemical signal to cross the gap
between the cells
 Neurotransmitter
 The neurotransmitter crosses by diffusion
 This creates a small delay.

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

 Designer signals

 Neurotransmitters give the nerve signal

more specificity
 Neurotransmitters 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.

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

 Neurotransmitters and
hormones
 Neurotransmitters are hormones
working over a very short distance
 Some of them work both at synapses and
in the circulatory system
 E.g. Adrenalin (epinephrin).

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

 1. Action potential arrives at
terminal button

Vesicle storing
neurotransmitter

Ca2+
channel

Membrane receptor
for neurotransmitter

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

 starklab.slu.edu/neuro/synapse.jpg

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

 3. Ca2+ stimulates
vesicles to fuse
2. Depolarisation with membrane
opens Ca2+ channels
Ca2+ enters terminal
button

Ca2+ Ca2+ Ca2+ Ca2+

4. Exocytosis of
neurotransmitter
It diffuses 20nm across
the synaptic cleft
© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS
 The passage across the
synapse
 An action potential travels down an axon to the
terminal buttons
 The membrane of a terminal button depolarises
 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
 Exocytosis
 The Ca2+ ions are then pumped out again.
© 2016 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. © 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS
 The passage across the
synapse
 Neurotransmitter diffuses across cleft to
postsynaptic membrane
 Neurotransmitter molecules bind with specific
receptor sites on postsynaptic membrane
 The receptor sites are ligand-gated ion channels
 These channels let Na+ ions in or K+ ions out
causing localised depolarisation of the
membrane.

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

 8. Neurotransmitter
destroyed by
enzymes in the cleft.
7. Action potential Stops signal being
generated which perpetuated.
travels down the
postsynaptic cell.
© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS
 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
neuron
 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

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

 The neuromuscular junction
is a synapse
 The motor end plate is the terminal button
of a motor neuron that makes contact with
a muscle cell
 The motor end plate releases the
neurotransmitter acetylcholine that
ultimately causes the muscle cell to
contract

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

 biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Labs/Anatomy_...

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

 education.vetmed.vt.edu/Curriculum/VM8054/Lab...
© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS
 Blocking synapses

 Poisons
 Psychotic drugs

 Medication

 Botox

 Neonicotinoid pesticides

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

 Nip & tuck
 Botox = a neurotoxin produced by a
bacterium Chlostridium botuninum
 It causes food poisoning (botulism)
 The toxin blocks the release of acetyl
choline neurotransmitter to muscles
 Causes muscle paralysis
 Cosmetically used to smooth lines
and creases
 Medically used to relax muscles that
causing illnesses such as spasms
and strabismus (cross-eyed). © 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS
 Neuro-active pesticides
 Neonicotinoids mimic the
neurotransmitter acetylcholine
 Nicotinoids cannot be broken by
the enzyme in the synapse
 So the signal continues
 Causing paralysis
 These pesticides have been
associated with honey bee
deaths in many countries.

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS