Nitric Oxide (NO) and other gas neurotransmitters are different from classic neurotransmitters: 
- Not produced in axon terminals
- Not held in or released from vesicles - it diffuses out of the neuron as soon as it's produced instead
- Does not interact with receptors - it diffuses into target cells instead
- Can serve as a retrograde transmitter 

Nitric Oxide 

- A soluble gas produced by one neuron that alters the function of another neuron (nitric oxide and carbon monoxide)
- Neurons use certain gas molecules that dissolve in water (soluble gases) to communicate information 

Rutgers University

- Amine Neurotransmitters
- Amino Acid Neurotransmitters
- Peptide Neurotransmitters
- Gas Neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitter Families

Breedlove, S. & Watson, N. (2017). Behavioral neuroscience, eighth edition. Oxford University Press.

Behavioral Neuroscience 8th Edition

- A neurotransmitter based on changes of a single amino acid (acetylcholine, serotonin, and dopamine)
- Monoamine neurotransmitters are amine neurotransmitters 

Amine Neurotransmitters

- A neurotransmitter that is an amino acid (GABA, glycine, glutamate, aspartate)
- In the brain, amino acid neurotransmitters have the most excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters


Amino Acid Neurotransmitters

- Also known as neuropeptide
- Peptides are short chains of between two and fifty amino acids, linked by peptide bonds
- A neurotransmitter that contains short chains of amino acids (galanin, neuropeptide Y, opioid peptides)

Peptide Neurotransmitters

Gas Neurotransmitters

Tryptamine is an indolamine metabolite of the essential amino acid, tryptophan. The structure of tryptamine is a shared feature of certain aminergic neuromodulators such as serotonin and psilocybin.

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