Warning: The NCBI web site requires JavaScript to function. more...
Generate a file for use with external citation management software.
Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York State Psychiatric Institute, 722 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, USA. ks560@columbia.edu
Synapse-specific facilitation requires rapamycin-dependent local protein synthesis at the activated synapse. In Aplysia, rapamycin-dependent local protein synthesis serves two functions: (1) it provides a component of the mark at the activated synapse and thereby confers synapse specificity and (2) it stabilizes the synaptic growth associated with long-term facilitation. Here we report that a neuron-specific isoform of cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding protein (CPEB) regulates this synaptic protein synthesis in an activity-dependent manner. Aplysia CPEB protein is upregulated locally at activated synapses, and it is needed not for the initiation but for the stable maintenance of long-term facilitation. We suggest that Aplysia CPEB is one of the stabilizing components of the synaptic mark.