Faithin Omaha eBook Collection

Download or read book The Role of the Atypical Protein Kinase C Zeta Orthologue, PKC Apl III, in Synaptic Plasticity and Long Term Memory in Aplysia Californica written by Joanna K. Bougie and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The search for how memories are formed and maintained over time has become a critical question in the scientific community. An important discovery in this field is the requirement for a persistently active kinase, called PKMz, to maintain long term synaptic plasticity and memory. In vertebrates, the atypical PKCz has a brain-specific transcript that produces this constitutively active kinase. The sensory-motor neuron synapse of Aplysia is a leading invertebrate model to study learning and memory. We have cloned the atypical PKC from Aplysia, which we call PKC Apl III. We do not find a transcript in Aplysia that forms a PKMz, and evolutionary analysis of atypical PKCs suggests formation of this transcript is restricted to vertebrates, despite the fact that inhibitors of PKMz erase memory in Aplysia in a fashion similar to rodents. However, overexpression of PKC Apl III in Aplysia sensory neurons leads to production of a PKM fragment of PKC Apl III, PKM Apl III...