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electron microscopy has the resolution to discriminate individual spines and synapses, figuring out the weight of the synapse though is not straightforward. At
by return0 9y ago
electron microscopy has the resolution to discriminate individual spines and synapses, figuring out the weight of the synapse though is not straightforward. At least for excitatory synapses however, there is ample evidence that the size of the spine correlates with the maturity and strength of the synapse. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20646057 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20646057
- mrfusion 9y agoI didn’t know that. That’s a good start. We still have, what 20 different neurotransmitters that can be weighted differently at each synapse?
- kanzure 9y agoYou can label receptors with aptamers and other technology, and then sequence the aptamer labels (or whatever). Many in situ sequencing techniques can be applied here. Note, however, that this requires more steps than simply scanning with electron microscope multi-array.
- mrfusion 9y agoInteresting. Maybe also doing some kind of rnaseq synapse by synapse could tell you what levels of neurotransmitters and receptors it’s maintaining. I’m not sure if that small of a scale would ever be possible.
- kanzure 9y agoYeah, it would certainly help to use a method like expansion microscopy, sort of like if Nectome were to subcontract some work to a certain MIT lab that invented the techni--- oh wait..
- return0 9y agowhat determines the conductance of the synapse is mostly the number AMPA/NMDA receptors in the synapse for excitatory and GABAa/GABAb for inhibitory. Then there's neuromodulation, g-coupled receptors etc etc. it's clearly not straightforward.