A study of the uptake of glutamate, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), glycine and beta-alanine in synaptic brain vesicles from fish and avians.

The ATP-dependent uptake of amino acids into synaptic vesicles isolated from mammalian brain is well characterized. To determine whether these characteristics are fundamental to the vesicular uptake system, synaptic vesicles were isolated from brains of the vertebrate species, rainbow trout and chicken and assayed for glutamate, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glycine uptake activity. Uptake was dependent upon temperature, Mg2+ and ATP and was also strongly inhibited by the alkylating agent N-ethylmaleimide which is known to inhibit the ATPase, confirming that this was an energy requiring process. Interestingly GABA and beta-alanine were inhibitors of vesicular uptake of glycine in both species. Likewise the uptake of GABA was inhibited by glycine and beta-alanine. Glutamate, GABA, glycine and beta-alanine were all taken up into vesicles from both trout and chicken, and the uptake ratios were similar to the corresponding uptake ratios in synaptic vesicles from rat. These results indicate that the synaptic vesicle uptake system for glutamate, GABA and glycine uptake system is conserved throughout the vertebrate class both in respect to ATP-dependency and substrate specificity.