structure and function of mitochondria at presynaptic terminal

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Mitochondrial function is essential for various aspects of living cell. Its morphological feature should be also important for living cell dynamics especially for the energy supply. I focus on the presynaptic mitochondria because presynaptic terminal is the specialized machine in terms of vesicular traffic which is controlled by the activity of neuron. First of all, I checked that presynaptic mitochondria is free moving or not. FCS analysis revealed that nocodazole, famous microtubule disrupting reagent, has affected the presynaptic mitochondrial stability. I conclude that the linking with microtubule might ensure the activity dependency of presynaptic energy supply from the mitochondria. To address this issue, I developed the novel cAMP probe. It can visualize the cAMP dynamics inside the mitochondria. It has been believed that [cAMP]mt is important modulator for electron transport activity. I have proposed the hypothesis that presynaptic activity induce the [cAMP]mt increase, which depend on microtubule platform, then up-regulate ATP production for energy use of synaptic transmission.