Abstract
The amount and availability of proteins are regulated by their synthesis, degradation, and transport. These processes can specifically, locally, and temporally regulate a protein or a population of proteins, thus affecting numerous biological processes in health and disease states. Accordingly, malfunction in the processes of protein turnover and localization underlies different neuronal diseases. However, as early as a century ago, it was recognized that there is a specific need for normal macromolecular synthesis in a specific fragment of the learning process, memory consolidation, which takes place minutes to hours following acquisition. Memory consolidation is the process by which fragile short-term memory is converted into stable long-term memory. It is accepted today that synaptic plasticity is a cellular mechanism of learning and memory processes. Interestingly, similar molecular mechanisms subserve both memory and synaptic plasticity consolidation. In this review, we survey the current view on the connection between memory consolidation processes and proteostasis, i.e., maintaining the protein contents at the neuron and the synapse. In addition, we describe the technical obstacles and possible new methods to determine neuronal proteostasis of synaptic function and better explain the process of memory and synaptic plasticity consolidation.
Highlights
Memory can be defined as storage of information manifested as changes over time in the physiology or behavior of an organism in response to environmental stimuli (Crystal and Glanzman, 2013)
Memories can be retained for seconds to years, with memory persistence strongly affected by the complexity of the organism’s behavioral repertoire and nervous system, the attention paid to a given experience and the positive or negative value the organism assigns to it by way of interpretation
In organisms with complex nervous systems, memory storage is believed to be heavily based on changes in synapses (Martin et al, 2000; Martin and Morris, 2002), specialized sites of cell–cell contact that connect the nerve cells within the nervous system
Summary
Memory can be defined as storage of information manifested as changes over time in the physiology or behavior of an organism in response to environmental stimuli (Crystal and Glanzman, 2013). While protein synthesis and degradation are undoubtedly essential for synaptic proteostasis, it is important to stress that dynamics of synaptic proteins seem to be dominated by much faster processes, which do not involve the breakdown and synthesis of synaptic molecules, but rather their migration in, out, and between synapses This conclusion is based on numerous live-imaging studies of multiple synaptic proteins, e.g., neurotransmitter receptors, scaffolding molecules, adhesion molecules, and even synaptic vesicles, which reveal typical residency times of seconds to minutes (receptors, cytoskeletal proteins) to several hours (core active zone and postsynaptic molecules).
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