The Great Escape of Glutamate from the Depth of Presynaptic Invaginations

The basal pole of a cone photoreceptor is in close contact with hundreds of bipolar cell dendrites. The function and properties of these unconventional junctions are a long-standing mystery. In this issue of Neuron, DeVries and colleagues provide compelling evidence that glutamate release from a single quanta can diffuse to distant AMPA/KA receptors on these basal junctions to generate slow mEPSCs.