Two-color, two-photon uncaging of glutamate and GABA.

Kantevari, Srinivas; Matsuzaki, Masanori; Kanemoto, Yuya; Kasai, Haruo; Ellis-Davies, Graham C R · Nat Methods · 2010

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We developed a caged GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), which, when combined with an appropriate caged glutamate, allows bimodal control of neuronal membrane potential with subcellular resolution using optically independent two-photon uncaging of each neurotransmitter. We used two-color, two-photon uncaging to fire and block action potentials from rat hippocampal CA1 neurons in brain slices with 720-nm and 830-nm light, respectively. Our method should be generalizable to other chemical messenger pairs.

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