title: β-Adducin is required for stable assembly of new synapses and improved memory upon environmental enrichment.
abstract: Learning is correlated with the assembly of new synapses, but the roles of synaptogenesis processes in memory are poorly understood. Here, we show that mice lacking β-Adducin fail to assemble new synapses upon enhanced plasticity and exhibit diminished long-term hippocampal memory upon environmental enrichment. Enrichment-enhanced the disassembly and assembly of dynamic subpopulations of synapses. Upon enrichment, stable assembly of new synapses depended on the presence of β-Adducin, disassembly involved β-Adducin phosphorylation through PKC, and both were required for augmented learning. In the absence of β-Adducin, enrichment still led to an increase in spine structures, but the assembly of synapses at those spines was compromised. Virus-mediated re-expression of β-Adducin in hippocampal granule cells of β-Adducin(-/-) mice rescued new synapse assembly and learning upon enrichment. Our results provide evidence that synapse disassembly and the establishment of new synapses are both critically important for augmented long-term learning and memory upon environmental enrichment.
authors: Friedrich Miescher Institut, Maulbeerstrasse 66, CH-4058 Basel, Switzerland.
authors: Ewa
authors: E
authors: Bednarek
authors: Pico
authors: P
authors: Caroni
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology; D002148:Calmodulin-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology; D049229:Dendritic Spines / Q000502:physiology; D004777:Environment; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*; D000099291:Adducins
chemical_list: D002148:Calmodulin-Binding Proteins; D000099291:Adducins