Neuron Conversations

Did you know that at least 1,461 proteins are involved in transferring information across the synapse from one neuron to another? Researchers at the Sanger Institute near Cambridge, England, have compiled the first exact inventory of all the protein components of the synaptic information-processing machinery. The 1,461 genes that specify these synaptic proteins make up more than seven percent of the human genome’s 20,000 protein-coding genes, an indication of the synapse’s complexity and importance.