Many proteins involved in synaptic transmission are well known, and their features, as their abundance or spatial distribution, have been analyzed in systematic studies. This has not been the case, however, for their mobility. To solve this, we analyzed the motion of 45 GFP‐tagged synaptic proteins expressed in cultured hippocampal neurons, using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, particle tracking, and modeling. We compared synaptic vesicle proteins, endo‐ and exocytosis cofactors, cytoskeleton components, and trafficking proteins. We found that movement was influenced by the protein association with synaptic vesicles, especially for membrane proteins. Surprisingly, protein mobility also correlated significantly with parameters as the protein lifetimes, or the nucleotide composition of their mRNAs. We then analyzed protein movement thoroughly, taking into account the spatial characteristics of the system. This resulted in a first visualization of overall protein motion in the synapse, which should enable future modeling studies of synaptic physiology.

Fluorescence imaging is one of the most versatile and widely-used tools in biology. Although techniques to overcome the diffraction barrier were introduced more than two decades ago, and the nominal attainable resolution kept improving to reach single-digit nm, fluorescence microscopy still fails to image the morphology of single proteins or small molecular complexes, either purified or in a cellular context. Here we report a solution to this problem, in the form of one-nanometer expansion (ONE) microscopy. We combined the 10-fold axial expansion of the specimen (1000-fold by volume) with a fluorescence fluctuation analysis to achieve resolutions down to 1 nm or better. We have successfully applied ONE microscopy to image cultured cells, tissues, viral particles, molecular complexes and single proteins. At the cellular level, using immunostaining, our technology revealed detailed nanoscale arrangements of synaptic proteins, including a quasi-regular organisation of PSD95 clusters. At the single molecule level, upon main chain fluorescent labelling, we could visualise the shape of individual membrane and soluble proteins. Moreover, conformational changes undergone by the ~17 kDa protein calmodulin upon Ca2+ binding were readily observable. We could also image and classify molecular aggregates in cerebrospinal fluid samples from Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients, which represents a promising new development towards an improved PD diagnosis. ONE microscopy is compatible with conventional microscopes and can be performed with the software we provide here as a free, open-source package. This technology bridges the gap between high-resolution structural biology techniques and light microscopy, and provides a new avenue for discoveries in biology and medicine.

Synaptic transmission has been studied for decades, as a fundamental step in brain function. The structure of the synapse, and its changes during activity, turned out to be key aspects not only in the transfer of information between neurons, but also in cognitive processes such as learning and memory. The overall synaptic morphology has traditionally been studied by electron microscopy, which enables the visualization of synaptic structure in great detail. The changes in the organization of easily identified structures, such as the presynaptic active zone, or the postsynaptic density, are optimally studied via electron microscopy. However, few reliable methods are available for labeling individual organelles or protein complexes in electron microscopy. For such targets one typically relies either on combination of electron and fluorescence microscopy, or on super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. This review focuses on approaches and techniques used to specifically reveal synaptic organelles and protein complexes, such as cytoskeletal assemblies. We place the strongest emphasis on methods detecting the targets of interest by affinity binding, and we discuss the advantages and limitations of each method.