The initial (indirect) attachment of a synaptic vesicle membrane to the presynaptic active zone membrane, mediated by proteins protruding from the membrane and proteins of the presynaptic active zone cytoplasmic component. Synaptic vesicle tethering is the first step in this process. [ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15217342 ]
Synonyms: synaptic vesicle docking involved in exocytosis
Term information
goslim_synapse
Although this process can occur outside of synaptic transmission, by convention we treat it as a part of synaptic transmission (dos, pvn, fk synapse project 2015).