Nerve Protein Linked to Learning and Memory

[TECH NEWS]

Can the nerve signaling inhibitor tomosyn help retain long-term memory? A new study by two University of Illinois at Chicago biologists points to the link.  Findings by Janet Richmond and David Featherstone, both professors of biological sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, are reported in the Oct. 31 online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Several studies have shown that learning behavior in fruit flies requires many of the same proteins used in higher animals, including mammals. Tomosyn interacts with a group of proteins known by the acronym SNARE, and that interaction is in turn regulated by an enzyme called PKA, which has been shown to be important for learning. Knowing this, Richmond and Featherstone ran experiments on fruit flies to see whether tomosyn might play a role in learning and memory. Their experiments involved the fly’s ability to learn to associate a particular odor with an electrical shock. Flies remember the association and will avoid the odor for hours afterwards. But by knocking out tomosyn, “the flies were unable to retain that memory,” said Richmond. The UIC biologists demonstrated how tomosyn can affect both synaptic signaling and learning and memory.

 Oct 31, 2011, University of Illinois at Chicago