Neurotransmitter transporters: from the biophysics of the transport process to its implications for synapse and circuit function

Neurotransmitter transporters in the plasma membrane of neuronal and glial cells provide precise spatial and temporal control of synaptic transmission, shaping responses to electrical activity and chemical agents. Other transporters, associated with the membrane of synaptic vesicles, are essential for packing neurotransmitters into vesicles and therefore regulate synaptic strength. While data mining on the human population converge on the conclusion that genetic disruption of neurotransmitter transporters is associated with a wide range of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disease, X-ray crystallography and cryogenic electron microscopy studies of bacterial and mammalian homologs provide unprecedented insights into the architecture of these molecules. With new powerful techniques and approaches at hand, research on transporters has now gained new momentum. Understanding how neurotransmitter transporters shape synaptic transmission and plasticity across brain regions, and ultimately control behaviors and contribute to disease is a new frontier in understanding neuropsychiatric disorders.

This Research Topic brings together key experimental and theoretical findings on neurotransmitter transporters, highlighting conceptual advances and lingering gaps of knowledge in transporter function.

The following article types are accepted for consideration: original research, review, mini review, perspective, general commentary, clinical trials, hypothesis and theory. We would like this Research Topic to bring together current advances from a number of fields relying on the use, for example, of structural, cell biology, genetics, physiology, behavioral and computational works.