title: Competing for memory: hippocampal LTP under regimes of reduced protein synthesis.
abstract: The persistence of synaptic potentiation in the hippocampus is known to depend on transcription and protein synthesis. We report here that, under regimes of reduced protein synthesis, competition between synapses for the relevant intracellular proteins can be demonstrated. Under such circumstances, the induction of additional protein synthesis-dependent long-term potentiation for a given set of postsynaptic neurons occurs at the expense of the maintenance of prior potentiation on an independent pathway. This new phenomenon, which we call "competitive maintenance," has important functional consequences, and it may be explained in terms of dynamic interactions between synapses and "plasticity factors" over extended periods of time.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Am Klopferspitz 18, 82152 München-Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Rosalina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fonseca
authors.forename: U Valentin
authors.initials: UV
authors.lastname: Nägerl
authors.forename: Richard G M
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bonhoeffer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000378:metabolism; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D011500:Protein Synthesis Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D011500:Protein Synthesis Inhibitors