High impact information on Synaptotagmin

• In C. elegans neurons, synaptotagmin is localized to regions known to be rich in synapses and appears to be associated with synaptic vesicles [1].
• Mutants defective in the synaptotagmin gene, called snt-1, exhibit severe behavioral abnormalities that are characteristic of deficiencies in synaptic function, including severe locomotion, feeding, and defecation defects [1].
• Finally, we demonstrate that double mutants lacking both the v-SNAREs synaptotagmin and snb-1 are phenotypically similar to snb-1 mutants and less severe than syntaxin mutants [2].
• Neural transmission. Synaptotagmin is just a calcium sensor [3].
• Knowledge of the genomic structures will aid the systematic investigation of alternative splicing in Syt genes [4].

Biological context of Synaptotagmin

• Comparison of the genomic structures of the Syt genes makes clear the different phylogenies of the different subgroups [4].
• I used TBLASTn to probe DNA sequence databases with a consensus peptide sequence corresponding to the most highly conserved region of the rodent synaptotagmin (Syt) gene family, which is within the C2B domain [4].

References