What components might contribute to the preferential

organization of recycling vesicles near the active zone? A potential candidate is actin, the highly dynamic cytoskeletal element that is concentrated at synapses (Bloom et al., 2003; Colicos et al., 2001; Sankaranarayanan et al., 2003; Siksou et al., 2011). We tested its possible involvement by incubating slices in the actin-stabilizing selleck screening library agent jasplakinolide before and during synaptic labeling. As with synapses under basal conditions, the average fraction of recycling vesicles in jasplakinolide-treated synapses was small (0.18 ± 0.01, n = 63, Figures 6A and 6B) and similarly distributed (p = 0.32, two-tailed Mann-Whitney test, Figure 6B). Thus, actin does not have a significant role in determining the proportion of recycling vesicles available for turnover. Next, we examined its potential impact on vesicle spatial organization by generating selleck chemical cumulative frequency distance plots. Strikingly, the preferential distribution of recycling vesicles toward the active zone was abolished; both the recycling and nonrecycling pools showed a similar distribution profile (p = 0.38, two-tailed paired t test, n = 17), comparable with the nonrecycling

pool profile observed in basal conditions (Figure 6C). We examined how recycling vesicles were mixed with respect to nonrecycling vesicles by performing a cluster

analysis. This revealed a flat profile (Figure 6D) with a clear absence of the sharp peak seen under basal conditions and was consistent with a homogeneous mixing of the two pools within the synapse. Taken together, our findings suggest that the impairment of actin remodeling during exo-endocytic vesicle turnover disrupts the overall spatial segregation of recycling vesicles. The selective effect of jasplakinolide treatment in disrupting spatial segregation allowed us to test for a possible impact of vesicle organization on release properties. Slices were incubated in jasplakinolide or vehicle and subsequently Thiamet G FM dye labeled and destained (Figure 6E) so that we could explore the effects of disrupting the positioning of vesicles on exocytotic kinetics. Fluorescent puncta underwent effective activity-evoked dye loss in both conditions (Figure 6F) but the destaining timecourse was significantly slower in jasplakinolide-treated synapses (p = 0.003, two-tailed Mann-Whitney test, Figure 6G). Although we cannot definitively rule out other possible direct effects of actin disruption on vesicle turnover, our findings provide evidence that the preferential spatial segregation of recycling vesicles serves to increase the efficacy of fast sustained neurotransmitter release.