Kavli Affiliate: Noelle Letoile, Saul Kato
| Authors: Kelli L. Benedetti, Fatema A Saifuddin, Julia M Miller, Kevin Daigle, Rashmi Chandra, Alec Chen, Christine Lin, Angel Jacob Garcia, Burhanuddin Calcuttawala, Angelica Tovar, Raymond L Dunn, Jackson Borchardt, Julia A Kaye, Bo Zhang, Saul Kato, Maria E Gallegos, Torsten Wittmann and Noelle L’Etoile
| Summary:
SUMMARY How organisms learn from their environment and keep these memories for the long term ensures their survival. There is much known about the regions of the brain and the various proteins that are essential for memory, yet the exact molecular mechanisms and dynamics required are not known. We aimed to understand the genetics that underlie memory formation. We tested a gene that encodes a transient potential receptor channel vanilloid channel, which is similar to the channels we have that sense spicy foods and other harmful cues. Our studies have shown that this gene is required for the animal to be able to acquire and perhaps consolidate olfactory memory. This protein is not expressed in the sensory neurons that respond to the odor that is memorized or in other downstream interneurons in the odor-sensation circuit, but it is expressed in a distinct set of sensory neurons. This indicates that long-term memory involves wild type behavior of a wider array of sensory neurons than is required for the primary sensation. These channels are also implicated in neurological disorders where memory is affected, including Alzheimer’s disease. Understanding how memory formation is affected by cells outside the memory circuit might provide testable hypothesis about what goes awry in Alzheimer’s disease.