Getting to the bottom...( secting the molecular basis of LTP whil...)

secting the molecular basis of LTP while simultaneously addressing effects on learning and memory. Using genetic methods they generated mouse strains with a defective version of a receptor molecule called TrkB. TrkB is found on the surface of cells in the hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in memory formation, and translates incoming signals into cellular responses. Mice with the defective TrkB, which is incapable to activate an important signaling pathway involving the protein PLCg, were no longer able to learn. At the same time the LTP that normal hippocampal cells generate in response to familiar stimuli was abolished.

"TrkB and the PLCg activated signaling pathway are central to both LTP and learning. For the first time we have been able to prove that LTP and learning do in fact have a common molecular basis," says Jose Delgado-García from the University of Sevilla.

For the future Minichiello and her lab are aiming to gain an even better understanding of TrkB and its role in learning and memory. Their research might give new impulses also to studies concerned with human memory, because underlying molecular pathways are likely to be conserved between species.

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Contact: Anna-Lynn Wegener
wegener@embl.de
49-622-138-7452
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
5-Jan-2007


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