%0 Journal Article
%T Is Aspartate an Excitatory Neurotransmitter?
%A Bruce E. Herring
%A Katlin Silm
%A Robert H. Edwards
%A Roger A. Nicoll
%J The Journal of Neurosience
%D 2015
%R 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0524-15.2015
%X Recent evidence has resurrected the idea that the amino acid aspartate, a selective NMDA receptor agonist, is a neurotransmitter. Using a mouse that lacks the glutamate-selective vesicular transporter VGLUT1, we find that glutamate alone fully accounts for the activation of NMDA receptors at excitatory synapses in the hippocampus. This excludes a role for aspartate and, by extension, a recently proposed role for the sialic acid transporter sialin in excitatory transmission.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT It has been proposed that the amino acid aspartate serves as a neurotransmitter. Although aspartate is a selective agonist for NMDA receptors, we find that glutamate alone fully accounts for neurotransmission at excitatory synapses in the hippocampus, excluding a role for aspartate
%U http://www.jneurosci.org/content/35/28/10168