Multivesicular release and saturation of glutamatergic signalling at retinal ribbon synapses

Abstract

Pronounced multivesicular release (MVR) occurs at the ribbon synapses of sensory neurones that signal via graded potential changes. As MVR increases the likelihood of postsynaptic receptor saturation, it is of interest to consider how sensory synapses overcome this problem and use MVR to encode signals of widely varying intensities. Here, I discuss three postsynaptic mechanisms that permit three different retinal synapses to utilize MVR. © 2007 The Author. Journal compilation © 2007 The Physiological Society.