ELKS controls the pool of readily releasable vesicles at excitatory synapses through its N-terminal coiled-coil domains

• DOI: 10.7554/elife.14862
• Publication Date: 2016-06-02T12:00:26Z
• Authors: Richard G Held; Changliang Liu; Pascal S Kaeser
• Keywords: Active zone

In a presynaptic nerve terminal, synaptic strength is determined by the pool of readily releasable vesicles (RRP) and probability release (P) each RRP vesicle. These parameters are controlled at active zone vary across synapses, but how such synapse specific control achieved not understood. ELKS proteins enriched vertebrate zones enhance P inhibitory hippocampal functions excitatory synapses known. Studying conditional knockout mice for ELKS, we find that enhances without affecting P. Surprisingly, C-terminal sequences, which interact with RIM, dispensable enhancement. Instead, N-terminal coiled-coil domains bind to Liprin-α Bassoon necessary RRP. Thus, removal has differential, synapse-specific effects on P, our findings establish important roles in vesicle priming.