IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v385y1997i6616d10.1038_385533a0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Synaptic tagging and long-term potentiation

Author

Listed:
  • Uwe Frey

    (Gene Regulation and Plasticity)

  • Richard G. M. Morris

    (Gene Regulation and Plasticity)

Abstract

Repeated stimulation of hippocampal neurons can induce an immediate and prolonged increase in synaptic strength that is called long-term potentiation (LTP)—the primary cellular model of memory in the mammalian brain1. An early phase of LTP (lasting less than three hours) can be dissociated from late-phase LTP by using inhibitors of transcription and translation2–8. Because protein synthesis occurs mainly in the cell body9–12, whereas LTP is input-specific, the question arises of how the synapse specificity of late LTP is achieved without elaborate intracellular protein trafficking. We propose that LTP initiates the creation of a short-lasting protein-synthesis-independent 'synaptic tag' at the potentiated synapse which sequesters the relevant protein(s) to establish late LTP. In support of this idea, we now show that weak tetanic stimulation, which ordinarily leads only to early LTP, or repeated tetanization in the presence of protein-synthesis inhibitors, each results in protein-synthesis-dependent late LTP, provided repeated tetanization has already been applied at another input to the same population of neurons. The synaptic tag decays in less than three hours. These findings indicate that the persistence of LTP depends not only on local events during its induction, but also on the prior activity of the neuron.

Suggested Citation

  • Uwe Frey & Richard G. M. Morris, 1997. "Synaptic tagging and long-term potentiation," Nature, Nature, vol. 385(6616), pages 533-536, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:385:y:1997:i:6616:d:10.1038_385533a0
    DOI: 10.1038/385533a0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/385533a0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/385533a0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jaschke Philipp & Sulin Sardoschau & Marco Tabellini, 2021. "Scared Straight? Threat and Assimilation of Refugees in Germany," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 2136, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    2. Dekeyser, Simon & He, Xianjie & Xiao, Tusheng & Zuo, Luo, 2024. "Auditor industry range and audit quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(2).
    3. Douglas Feitosa Tomé & Sadra Sadeh & Claudia Clopath, 2022. "Coordinated hippocampal-thalamic-cortical communication crucial for engram dynamics underneath systems consolidation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, December.
    4. Philipp Jaschke & Sulin Sardoschau & Marco Tabellini, 2023. "Scared Straight? Threat and Assimilation of Refugees in Germany," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 384, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    5. Syed Ghazi Sarwat & Timoleon Moraitis & C. David Wright & Harish Bhaskaran, 2022. "Chalcogenide optomemristors for multi-factor neuromorphic computation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    6. Bharanidharan Shanmugasundaram & Yogesh D Aher & Jana Aradska & Marija Ilic & Daniel Daba Feyissa & Predrag Kalaba & Nilima Y Aher & Vladimir Dragacevic & Babak Saber Marouf & Thierry Langer & Harald , 2017. "R-Modafinil exerts weak effects on spatial memory acquisition and dentate gyrus synaptic plasticity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(6), pages 1-17, June.
    7. Giuliano, Paola & Spilimbergo, Antonio, 2024. "Aggregate Shocks and the Formation of Preferences and Beliefs," IZA Discussion Papers 17110, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Tatsuya Osaki & Tomoya Duenki & Siu Yu A. Chow & Yasuhiro Ikegami & Romain Beaubois & Timothée Levi & Nao Nakagawa-Tamagawa & Yoji Hirano & Yoshiho Ikeuchi, 2024. "Complex activity and short-term plasticity of human cerebral organoids reciprocally connected with axons," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:385:y:1997:i:6616:d:10.1038_385533a0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.