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. 2021 Dec 29;10:e71981. doi: 10.7554/eLife.71981

Figure 5. Dopamine contact points are physical interdigitations between dopaminergic (DA) axons and either afferent axons or nucleus accumbens (NAc) dendrites.

(A) Image montage of every other electron microscopy (EM) serial section (Z1–Z9) from a mouse expressing mito-Apex2 in DA neurons. Highlighted in blue is the mito-Apex2 DA axon, and in red is the interdigitating chemical synapse (CS) axon. Bottom right: 3D rendering showing interdigitation of a CS axon (red) into the vesicle-filled DA axon (blue). (B) 3D renderings of two other examples of DA axon interdigitations. A vesicle-filled CS axon (red) or dendritic spine (green) interdigitate into a DA axon (blue) in the left and right images, respectively. Scale bar = (A) 1 µm.

Figure 5.

Figure 5—figure supplement 1. Image montage of dopaminergic (DA) axon interdigitations.

Figure 5—figure supplement 1.

(A) Electron microscopy (EM) z-series of the interdigitation between a cyto-Apex2 DA axon (blue) and vesicle-filled chemical synapse (CS) axon (red) that corresponds to the 3D rendering in Figure 5B, left image. (B) EM z-series of the interdigitation between a cyto-Apex2 DA axon (blue) and nucleus accumbens (NAc) dendritic spine (green) that corresponds to the 3D rendering in Figure 5B, right image. Scale bar = (A,B) 1 µm.