Introducing the brain: how novelty stores memory (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, February 14, 2024, 00:03 (73 days ago) @ David Turell

Create a lncRNA:

https://www.the-scientist.com/novelty-activates-a-long-noncoding-rna-for-spatial-learni...

Learning spatial elements of a new environment is important for people and animals. However, how this process occurs in the brain remains poorly understood. Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) are abundantly expressed in the brain; although they’re predominantly studied for their roles during development, increasing evidence points to their function in the adult brain. Recently, a team from the Weizmann Institute of Science showed in a paper published in Cell Reports that Silc1, a lncRNA, regulated spatial learning in an unfamiliar environment in mice.

***

Compared to mice in their usual housing, animals placed in a new environment expressed more Sox11 and Silc1. The researchers then determined if Silc1 expression drove Sox11 expression by deleting Silc1. In the absence of Silc1 in adult mice, these Sox11 targets when placed in the novel environment, and this translated to reduced production of Sox11 protein. “We were really surprised to see that it acts like an immediate early gene,” Perry said.

***

“It is really cool that the long noncoding is regulated by novelty—that you have a physiological stimulus that regulates so specifically this long noncoding RNA, and that you then also can discriminate between, for example, two types of memories that it affects: spatial memory, but not long term memory,” said Jeroen Pasterkamp, a translational neuroscientist at University Medical Center Utrecht who was not involved in the study.

***

“We see that a program that is typically thought to be happening only as the brain is growing and as it is forming is reactivated during memory formation,” said Ulitsky. “But on the other hand, we see that this long noncoding RNA, which is activating this program, is actually not found in the embryo at all.” (my bold)

Comment: I could flood this website with new science stories about the intricacies of living biochemical reactions, but the key here to notice is my bold. A noncoding RNA is created by the brain's neurons to act as if it is a gene! It shows an extraordinary amount of purposeful planning for a future, result which I attribute to a designer, not cell committees.