Calcium-Dependent Synaptic Vesicle Trafficking Underlies Indefatigable Release at the Hair Cell Afferent Fiber Synapse

Sensory hair cell ribbon synapses respond to graded stimulation in a linear, indefatigable manner, requiring that vesicle trafficking to synapses be rapid and nonrate-limiting. Real-time monitoring of vesicle fusion identified two release components. The first was saturable with both release rate and magnitude varying linearly with Ca2+, however the magnitude was too small to account for sustained afferent firing rates. A second superlinear release component required recruitment, in a Ca2+-dependent manner, of vesicles not in the immediate vicinity of the synapse. The superlinear component had a constant rate with its onset varying with Ca2+ load. High-speed Ca2+ imaging revealed a nonlinear increase in internal Ca2+ correlating with the superlinear capacitance change, implicating release of stored Ca2+ in driving vesicle recruitment. These data, supported by a mass action model, suggest sustained release at hair cell afferent fiber synapse is dictated by Ca2+-dependent vesicle recruitment from a reserve pool.