Decrypting the "black box" of nerve synapses: systematic quantitative analysis of complete synapses using cryoscopy technology.

Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China have made a breakthrough in using cryoscopic mirrors to analyze the superstructure of the synaptic synapses, and declassified the "black box" of the synaptic synapse.
the international academic journal Journal of neuroscience recently covered the study in the form of a cover.
using CryoET to parse the three-dimensional visual rendering of the three-dimensional structure of the hippocampus's synaptic synapses (Journal of The Cover of Neuroscience) Synapses is the most basic structure and functional unit of brain behavior, consciousness, learning and memory, and is also the origin of many brain diseases.
accurately analyze the molecular tissue structure of synapses and their changes in neural activity are considered to be the most direct and effective way to decipher the mysteries of the brain, and is one of the most basic research work in neuroscience. In the early
, biochemical and molecular biology, electrophysiology and other studies found a large number of molecular and cellular components in synapses, and revealed various functional characteristics of synapses and plasticity rules.
However, due to the limitations of research techniques, how these different components in the synapse are organized into complex machines to perform different functions, and far from being fully observed and parsed.
the National Research Center for Microscale Material Science in Hefei, China University of Science and Technology, in cooperation with Bi Guoqiang, Liu Beiming and Professor Zhou Zhenghong of the School of Life Sciences, combined with the newly developed cryoelectric tomography technology (cryoET), combined with the independently developed cryoelectric-associated micro-imaging technology, realized the quantitative analysis of the two most important synapses in the central nervous system.
by cultureing the hippocampus neurons of rats on the special-type carrier network of the frozen electroscopy, the team obtained a series of complete synaptic three-dimensional structures in the near-physiological state.
combined with quantitative analysis methods, the structure of the dense zone after the uniform flakeized synapses of inhibitory synapses was first reported, and it was found that there were spheroidal synapsias in both types of synapses, ending the long-standing debate on the fine structure of the form of the synaptic vesicles and the dense areas after synapsia.
then, the team further obtained the fine tissue structure of synapses at the molecular level, and realized the direct observation of a single neurotransmitter receptor protein complex and its interaction with the stent protein in synaptic situ.
this is the first time in the world to use cryoscopy technology for the complete synapses to carry out systematic quantitative analysis.
work on the one hand to promote the synaptic ultra-microstructure and function of the "black box" decryption, on the other hand, to break through the frozen electron mirror technology in complex cell system in situ analysis of the structure of biomolecular complex structure of the technical problem lays the foundation.
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