Figure 5.

Shared intracellular components link transsynaptic assemblies and cause association domains of presynaptic and postsynaptic intracellular material that pair across the synapse. In many cases, an intracellular structure will connect more than one transcleft structure, linking the assemblies and their components. We call the resulting clusters of intracellular material “association domains.” A, In four examples of association domains, a single shared intracellular structure was selected, and all connected assemblies and structures were rendered, including synaptic vesicles (structure color code: presynaptic transmembrane and intracellular, light green and light blue; synaptic vesicles, red; postsynaptic transmembrane and intracellular, dark green and dark blue; transcleft, pink). B, Each linked presynaptic and postsynaptic association domain is colored a single shade of blue or green. Synaptic vesicles are red if connected to a domain but otherwise pink. All other structures are gray. C, In four examples, a single synaptic vesicle was selected, and all connected assemblies and structures are rendered to illustrate the clustering of material around synaptic vesicles through association domains. D, Not all association domains associate with synaptic vesicles. Here, synaptic vesicle-associated domains are indicated by coloring linked presynaptic and postsynaptic structures in shades of pink. Other structures are colored gray. Again, synaptic vesicles-associated with domains are colored red and otherwise pink. In A and C, renderings are oriented and scaled for comparison. Scale bar: 40 nm.