Imaging Microtubule Network in Rodent Giant Glutamatergic Presynaptic Terminals

Increasing interest and evidence have pointed to the critical role of cytoskeleton elements such as microtubules or actin filaments in the regulation of synapse organization, morphology, and function. However, due to the limited size of conventional pre- and postsynaptic compartments, the visualization and analysis of the synaptic microtubule network remained challenging. This chapter will present methods and protocols to image and analyze microtubules by standard confocal and super-resolution fluorescence microscopy in rodent giant glutamatergic terminals from brainstem slices and from primary dissociated neuron culture in both live and fixed preparation.