Biphasic activation of the mTOR pathway in the gustatory cortex is correlated with and necessary for taste learning.

Full Abstract

Different forms of memories and synaptic plasticity require synthesis of new proteins at the time of acquisition or immediately after. We are interested in the role of translation regulation in the cortex, the brain structure assumed to store long-term memories. The mammalian target of rapamycin, mTOR (also known as FRAP and RAFT-1), is part of a key signal transduction mechanism known to regulate translation of specific subset of mRNAs and to affect learning and synaptic plasticity. We report here that novel taste learning induces two waves of mTOR activation in the gustatory cortex. Interestingly, the first wave can be identified both in synaptoneurosomal and cellular fractions, whereas the second wave is detected in the cellular fraction but not in the synaptic one. Inhibition of mTOR, specifically in the gustatory cortex, has two effects. First, biochemically, it modulates several known downstream proteins that control translation and reduces the expression of postsynaptic density-95 in vivo. Second, behaviorally, it attenuates long-term taste memory. The results suggest that the mTOR pathway in the cortex modulates both translation factor activity and protein expression, to enable normal taste memory consolidation.

Author information

Author/s: Belelovsky, Katya (K); Kaphzan, Hanoch (H); Elkobi, Alina (A); Rosenblum, Kobi (K);

Affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Ethology, Faculty for Science, University of Haifa, Haifa 30905, Israel.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: In Vitro; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience (J Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Jun; vol 29 (issue 23) : pp 7424-31

Dates: Created 2009/06/11; Completed 2009/06/29;

PMID: 19515910, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 6/29/2009, IMS Date: 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Animals
Butadienes - pharmacology
Cerebral Cortex - physiology
Conditioning, Classical
Enzyme Inhibitors - metabolism; pharmacology
Hippocampus - physiology
Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins - metabolism
Learning - physiology
Male
Membrane Proteins - metabolism
Memory - physiology

Memory - physiology
Nitriles - pharmacology
Phosphorylation
Protein Kinases - metabolism
Rats
Rats, Wistar
Ribosomal Protein S6 Kinases - metabolism
Signal Transduction - physiology
Sirolimus - metabolism
Taste
Time Factors

Associated Chemicals: Butadienes (0) ; Dlgh4 protein, rat (0) ; Enzyme Inhibitors (0) ; Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins (0) ; Membrane Proteins (0) ; Nitriles (0) ; U 0126 (0) ; Sirolimus (53123-88-9) ; mTOR protein (EC 2.7.1.-) ; Protein Kinases (EC 2.7.1.37) ; Ribosomal Protein S6 Kinases (EC 2.7.1.37) ; S6K1 protein, rat (EC 2.7.1.37)

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