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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Sep 23.
Published in final edited form as: Ultramicroscopy. 2009 Mar 28;109(8):1094–1104. doi: 10.1016/j.ultramic.2009.03.043

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Neuronal fusion pore distribution, size and structure. Figure 2a shows the structure and distribution of fusion pores at the cytosolic compartment of a synaptosome. Inside-out synaptosome preparations when imaged in buffer using AFM, demonstrates inverted 12–16 nm cup-shaped fusion pores, some with docked vesicles. Note one inverted cup-shaped fusion pore (green arrow heads), with a docked synaptic vesicle (red arrow heads), shown at higher magnification in Figure 2b. (b) Atomic force micrograph shows a 37 nm synaptic vesicle docked to a 14 nm fusion pore at the cytoplasmic compartment in the isolated synaptosomal membrane. (c) AFM measurement of the fusion pores (13.05±0.91) and attached synaptic vesicles (40.15±3.14) in the cytosolic compartment of synaptosome membrane is demonstrated in Fig. 2c (n=15). (d) Schematic illustration of a neuronal fusion pore, showing the 8 vertical ridges and a central plug. (e) Photon correlation spectroscopy, further demonstrates fusion pores to measure 12–16 nm [7].