Fos and Jun potentiate individual release sites and mobilize the reserve synaptic-vesicle pool at the Drosophila larval motor synapse

In all nervous systems, short-term enhancement of transmitter release is achieved by increasing the weights of unitary synapses; in contrast, long-term enhancement, which requires nuclear gene expression, is generally thought to be mediated by the addition of new synaptic vesicle release sites. In Drosophila motor neurons, induction of AP-1, a heterodimer of Fos and Jun, induces cAMP- and CREB-dependent forms of presynaptic enhancement. Light and electron microscopic studies indicate that this synaptic enhancement is caused by increasing the weight of unitary synapses and not through the insertion of additional release sites. Electrophysiological and optical measurements of vesicle dynamics demonstrate that enhanced neurotransmitter release is accompanied by an increase in the actively cycling synaptic vesicle pool at the expense of the reserve pool. Finally, the observation that AP-1 mediated enhancement eliminates tetanus-induced forms of presynaptic potentiation suggests: (i) that reserve-pool mobilization is required for tetanus-induced short-term synaptic plasticity; and (ii) that long-term synaptic plasticity may, in some instances, be accomplished by stable recruitment of mechanisms that normally underlie short-term synaptic change.