2012 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Physiological analysis of process specific synaptic tagging
| Project/Area Number |
23700449
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Neurochemistry/Neuropharmacology
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| Research Institution | Nara Institute of Science and Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
ISHIKAWA Yasuyuki 奈良先端科学技術大学院大学, バイオサイエンス研究科, 助教 (90346320)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2011 – 2012
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| Keywords | 神経可塑性 / 記憶 / 学習 / 連合可塑性 / ニューロプシン |
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| Research Abstract |
Activity-dependent synaptic plasticity is widely accepted to provide a cellular basis for learning and memory. Synaptic associativity could be involvedin activity-dependent synaptic plasticity, because it distinguishes between local mechanisms of synaptic tags and cell-wide mechanisms that are responsible for the synthesis of plasticity-related proteins. We report that a plasticity-related serine protease, neuropsin, is involved in the tag-setting process during long-term potentiation (LTP) at basal and apical dendritic inputs. Neuropsin is involved in synaptic associativity during LTP at apical dendritic inputs via integrin β1 and CaMKII signalling. Thus, neuropsin is a candidate molecule for LTP-specific tag-setting and could regulate the transformation of early to late LTP during synaptic associativity. These findings may provide the understanding of the regulation of synaptic associativity as complex information-processing systems.
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