TALKEETNA, Al. (KTUU) - A cat named Stubbs has been the mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska for nearly all of his life. It's been that way for more than a decade in the small tourist town that boasts nearly 900 residents.
DAT is an integral membrane protein that removes dopamine from the synaptic cleft and deposits it into surrounding cells, thus terminating the signal of the neurotransmitter. Dopamine underlies several aspects of cognition, including reward, and DAT facilitates regulation of that signal.
The precursor for dopamine is the amino acid tyrosine. This essential amino acid enters your body and bloodstream through your diet. An active transport mechanism takes up tyrosine from the bloodstream and concentrates it within the brain (particularly in the substantia nigra, midbrain, and hypothalamus).