The findings may also have implications for learning and memory disorders, including Fragile X syndrome.
Less than twenty minutes after finishing this article, your brain will begin to store the information that you've just read in a coordinated burst of neuronal activity. Underpinning this process is a phenomenon known as dendritic translation, which involves an uptick in localized protein production within dendrites, the spiny branches that project off the neuron cell body and receive signals from other neurons at synapses.
"Hacisuleyman's work defines a whole new biochemical pathway which fits with, complements, and vastly expands what we already knew about memory and learning," adds Darnell, the Robert and Harriet Heilbrunn professor.Memory formation centers around the hippocampus, a brain region so central to learning that, when surgeons removed it from people with epilepsy in the 1940s, the patients remembered their childhoods but lost the ability to form new memories.
An analysis of these crucial moments revealed a microscopic upheaval in the dendrite. Upon activation, local ribosomes jump onto mRNAs, an action that has all the biochemical hallmarks of memory formation, and which models predicted will cause the dendrite to produce not only new proteins, but 1,000 small proteins known as micropeptides, with as-yet unknown function.
Beyond the paper's immediate findings, dendritic-TurboID could also allow researchers to examine protein synthesis in other brain regions and apply the findings to different diseases."We can now begin to look at many other sites with a fine-toothed comb," Hacisuleyman says.
Neuroscience Intelligence Brain Injury Educational Psychology Dementia Learning Disorders Disorders And Syndromes
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