Irradiation and brain genes. Free Technical Library News

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Irradiation and brain genes

06.10.2015

When people talk about the molecular processes that ensure the recording of information in the brain, they usually mean that the activity of certain genes is enhanced in nerve cells. It is known that during the formation of memory, new connections are established between neurons, new synapses appear, due to which additional neural chains are formed - the material base of memory. In order for a synapse to appear, it is necessary that special proteins appear, so the conclusion suggests itself that genes must also work more actively - this is confirmed by numerous experiments.

However, it could also be the other way around: researchers from Seoul National University found that in the mouse hippocampus, one of the brain's main memory centers, genetic activity fades when memory is written. Neuroscientists developed in animals the habit of being afraid of certain environments: when a mouse was in a special cage, it was shocked; then, when she again got into this cage, the fear "turned on" by itself, without any stimuli - in other words, the mechanisms of memorization and learning worked.

To find out what was going on in the molecular kitchen of the brain, animals were analyzed for the set and amount of RNA in hippocampal cells, and not just RNA, but precisely those that were involved in protein production, on which protein-synthesizing machines, ribosomes, sat. And the molecules were analyzed not at all after the mouse remembered what to be afraid of, but after 5, 10, 30 minutes and four hours after the "fear sessions" - such an experiment made it possible to see the dynamics of molecular changes.

Gene activity can be assessed by two processes, transcription and translation. At the first stage, at the stage of transcription, an RNA copy is removed from DNA, respectively, more RNA is synthesized on active genes, and less on inactive genes. At the second stage, the stage of translation, protein molecules are synthesized on RNA: more protein is synthesized on active RNAs, less on inactive ones (that is, here, strictly speaking, we mean RNA activity). Scientists were able to "catch" 104 genes, whose activity at different time points varied quite strongly at the level of transcription or translation. During the first 10 minutes, the synthesis of new RNAs on the genes remained the same, they did not become more or less (that is, the intensity of transcription did not change), which could not be said about translation, that is, about the synthesis of protein molecules on RNA - here the changes occurred immediately . (Which is not surprising: protein synthesis responds more quickly than RNA synthesis to changing environmental conditions and cell needs.) In general, transcription caught up with translation 30 minutes after the training session.

The main surprise was what exactly the changes consisted of: the activity of many genes fell. Already five minutes later, the rate of synthesis of proteins encoded by more than half of the genes that were affected by the changes slowed down. After half an hour, 31 out of 42 RNA types fell silent, after four hours, translation stopped in 48 out of 55. Inhibition was stable, in the sense that those RNAs on which protein synthesis stopped after half an hour continued to be silent further.

The authors of the work note that the activity of more than half of these genes depended on a molecule called the alpha estrogen receptor ESR1: the less it was synthesized, the less all the others were. If the level of ESR1 was artificially increased, this had a corresponding effect both on the dynamics of other molecules and on the ability of mice to remember what they should be afraid of. A similar effect was observed with the Nrsn1 gene: if protein synthesis on the RNA of the Nrsn1 gene was stimulated, the animals learned worse. That is, the researchers not only found some strange molecular effect, but also correlated it with cognitive changes.

Why it is necessary to turn off the synthesis of a fairly large number of proteins in order to form a memory, so far no one knows, but the fact itself is so remarkable that, obviously, biologists will do everything to find out the functions of these genes as soon as possible. According to one version, their job is to prevent the brain from remembering absolutely everything, in other words, they play the role of a fuse that protects us from information overload. And when there is a need to really remember something, such genes need to be turned off.

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