Early calcium increase triggers the formation of olfactory long-term memory in honeybees.
BMC Biol
; 7: 30, 2009 Jun 16.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-19531205
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Synaptic plasticity associated with an important wave of gene transcription and protein synthesis underlies long-term memory processes. Calcium (Ca2+) plays an important role in a variety of neuronal functions and indirect evidence suggests that it may be involved in synaptic plasticity and in the regulation of gene expression correlated to long-term memory formation. The aim of this study was to determine whether Ca2+ is necessary and sufficient for inducing long-term memory formation. A suitable model to address this question is the Pavlovian appetitive conditioning of the proboscis extension reflex in the honeybee Apis mellifera, in which animals learn to associate an odor with a sucrose reward.RESULTS:
By modulating the intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) in the brain, we show that (i) blocking [Ca2+]i increase during multiple-trial conditioning selectively impairs long-term memory performance; (ii) conversely, increasing [Ca2+]i during single-trial conditioning triggers long-term memory formation; and finally, (iii) as was the case for long-term memory produced by multiple-trial conditioning, enhancement of long-term memory performance induced by a [Ca2+]i increase depends on de novo protein synthesis.CONCLUSION:
Altogether our data suggest that during olfactory conditioning Ca2+ is both a necessary and a sufficient signal for the formation of protein-dependent long-term memory. Ca2+ therefore appears to act as a switch between short- and long-term storage of learned information.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Abelhas
/
Sinalização do Cálcio
/
Memória
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
BMC Biol
Assunto da revista:
BIOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2009
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
França