Ribbon Synapse (Sikora et al 2005)

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Accession:50997
A model of the ribbon synapse was developed to replicate both pre- and postsynaptic functions of this glutamatergic juncture. The presynaptic portion of the model is rich in anatomical and physiological detail and includes multiple release sites for each ribbon based on anatomical studies of presynaptic terminals, presynaptic voltage at the terminal, the activation of voltage-gated calcium channels and a calcium-dependent release mechanism whose rate varies as a function of the calcium concentration that is monitored at two different sites which control both an ultrafast, docked pool of vesicles and a release ready pool of tethered vesicles. See paper for more and details.
Reference:
1 . Sikora MA, Gottesman J, Miller RF (2005) A computational model of the ribbon synapse. J Neurosci Methods 145:47-61 [PubMed]
Model Information (Click on a link to find other models with that property)
Model Type: Synapse;
Brain Region(s)/Organism:
Cell Type(s): Retina ganglion GLU cell; Retina bipolar GLU cell;
Channel(s): I L high threshold;
Gap Junctions:
Receptor(s): AMPA; NMDA;
Gene(s):
Transmitter(s): Glutamate;
Simulation Environment: NEURON;
Model Concept(s): Intrinsic plasticity; Calcium dynamics;
Implementer(s): Sikora, Michael [Sikora at umn.edu];
Search NeuronDB for information about:  Retina ganglion GLU cell; Retina bipolar GLU cell; AMPA; NMDA; I L high threshold; Glutamate;
COMMENT
Internal calcium concentration calculated in response to a calcium current calculated elsewhere,
and a single-exponetial extruding pump calculated here. Valid for small distances from the membrane,
where the suface to volume ratio of a cylinder can be approximated as 1/depth .
This code was modified from Destexhe,Babloyantz & Sejnowski (Biophys. J. 65(1993): 1538-1552 --Equ. 7 ) 
ENDCOMMENT

INDEPENDENT {t FROM 0 TO 1 WITH 1 (ms)}

NEURON {
	SUFFIX cad
	USEION ca READ ica, cai WRITE cai
	RANGE depth,cainf,taur
}

UNITS {
	(molar) = (1/liter)			: moles do not appear in units
	(mM)	= (millimolar)
	(um)	= (micron)
	(mA)	= (milliamp)
	(msM)	= (ms mM)
}

CONSTANT {
	FARADAY = 96489		(coul)		: moles do not appear in units
}

PARAMETER {
	depth	= .1	(um)		: depth of shell
	taur	= 1.5	(ms)		: remove first-order decay
	cainf	= 0.0001 (mM)
}

STATE {
	cai		(mM) 
}

INITIAL {
	cai = 0.0001
}

ASSIGNED {
	ica		(mA/cm2)
	drive_channel	(mM/ms)
	drive_pump	(mM/ms)
}
	
BREAKPOINT {
	SOLVE state METHOD derivimplicit
}

DERIVATIVE state { 

: Surface to volume ratio of a cylinder is approximated as 1/depth for very small values of depth
: More precicely the ratio is   2 / ( (depth)^2 / (diam/2 - (2 * depth)) )

	drive_channel =  - (10000) * ica / (2 * FARADAY * depth)

	if (drive_channel <= 0.) { drive_channel = 0. }	: cannot pump below resting level
	cai' = drive_channel + (cainf-cai)/taur
}


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