Department of Biological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, San 56-1 Silim-dong Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-747, South Korea.
Mol Brain. 2012 Oct 30;5:40. doi: 10.1186/1756-6606-5-40.
Notch signaling is well recognized as a key regulator of the neuronal fate during embryonic development, but its function in the adult brain is still largely unknown. Mind bomb-1 (Mib1) is an essential positive regulator in the Notch pathway, acting non-autonomously in the signal-sending cells. Therefore, genetic ablation of Mib1 in mature neuron would give valuable insight to understand the cell-to-cell interaction between neurons via Notch signaling for their proper function.
Here we show that the inactivation of Mib1 in mature neurons in forebrain results in impaired hippocampal dependent spatial memory and contextual fear memory. Consistently, hippocampal slices from Mib1-deficient mice show impaired late-phase, but not early-phase, long-term potentiation and long-term depression without change in basal synaptic transmission at SC-CA1 synapses.
These data suggest that Mib1-mediated Notch signaling is essential for long-lasting synaptic plasticity and memory formation in the rodent hippocampus.
Notch 信号通路在胚胎发育过程中作为神经元命运的关键调节剂已得到广泛认可,但它在成年大脑中的功能仍知之甚少。Mind bomb-1(Mib1)是 Notch 通路中的一个重要正调控因子,在信号发送细胞中发挥非自主作用。因此,成熟神经元中 Mib1 的基因缺失将有助于深入了解神经元之间通过 Notch 信号进行的细胞间相互作用,以确保其正常功能。
我们发现前脑成熟神经元中 Mib1 的失活导致海马依赖性空间记忆和情景性恐惧记忆受损。一致地,来自 Mib1 缺陷型小鼠的海马切片显示晚期长时程增强和长时程压抑受损,而在 SC-CA1 突触处的基础突触传递没有变化。
这些数据表明,Mib1 介导的 Notch 信号对于啮齿动物海马体中的长时程突触可塑性和记忆形成至关重要。