Organization of glutamate receptors at the synapse

Glutamate receptors can be divided in several groups with distinct functional properties. An additional level of complexity has emerged from recent high resolution immunogold analyses which have provided evidence for a differential targeting of glutamate receptors to specific subsynaptic membrane domains. Notably, different types of glutamate receptor may differ in their distance to the release site and in their spatial relation to glutamate transporters. These data imply that the subsynaptic expression of a given glutamate receptor may bias its response to a released quantum of transmitter and suggest that receptor targeting may be implicated in the modulation of glutamatergic neurotransmission.