The study, published online ahead of print on September 12, 2013 by the journal\u00a0Cell Reports<\/i>, focuses on a family of proteins called Wnts. These proteins send signals from the outside to the inside of a cell, inducing a cellular response crucial for many aspects of embryonic development<\/strong>, including stem cell differentiation, as well as for normal functioning of the adult brain.<\/p>\n \u201cBy removing the function of three proteins in the Wnt signaling pathway, we produced a deficit in long-term but not short-term memory<\/strong>,\u201d said Ron Davis, chair of the TSRI Department of Neuroscience. \u201cThe pathway is clearly part of the conversion of short-term memory to the long-term stable form, which occurs through changes in gene expression.\u201d<\/p>\n The findings stem from experiments probing the role of Wnt signaling components in olfactory memory formation in\u00a0Drosophila<\/i>, the common fruit fly\u2014a widely used doppelg\u00e4nger for human memory studies. In the new study, the scientists inactivated the expression of several Wnt signaling proteins in the mushroom bodies of adult flies\u2014part of the fly brain that plays a role in learning and memory.<\/p>\n The resulting memory disruption, Davis said, suggests that Wnt signaling participates actively in the formation of long-term memory, rather than having some general, non-specific effect on behavior<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is interesting is that the molecular mechanisms of adult memory use the same processes that guide the early development of the organism, except that they are repurposed for memory formation,\u201d he said. \u201cOne difference, however, is that during early development the signals are intrinsic, while in adults they require an outside stimulus to create a memory<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The first author of the study, \u201cWnt\u00a0<\/i>signaling is required for long-term memory formation,\u201d is Ying Tan of the Baylor College of Medicine. Other authors include Germain U. Busto of TSRI and Curtis Wilson of Baylor College of Medicine.<\/p>\n The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NS19904).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Scripps Florida media release: Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a group of proteins essential to the formation of long-term memories…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[321,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15533"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15535,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15533\/revisions\/15535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"schizophrenia](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/schizophrenia-memory-loss.jpg\")
<\/a>Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a group of proteins essential to the formation of long-term memories<\/strong>.<\/p>\n