English
 
Help Privacy Policy Disclaimer
  Advanced SearchBrowse

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Released

Journal Article

A role for the Ras signalling pathway in synaptic transmission and long-term memory

MPS-Authors
There are no MPG-Authors in the publication available
External Resource
No external resources are shared
Fulltext (restricted access)
There are currently no full texts shared for your IP range.
Fulltext (public)
There are no public fulltexts stored in PuRe
Supplementary Material (public)
There is no public supplementary material available
Citation

Brambilla, R., Gnesutta, N., Minichiello, L., White, G., Roylance, A. J., Herron, C. E., et al. (1997). A role for the Ras signalling pathway in synaptic transmission and long-term memory. Nature, 390(6657), 281-286. doi:10.1038/36849.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-BE58-F
Abstract
Members of the Ras subfamily of small guanine-nucleotide-binding proteins are essential for controlling normal and malignant cell proliferation as well as cell differentiation(1). The neuronal-specific guanine-nucleotide-exchange factor, Ras-GRF/CDC25Mm (refs 2-4), induces Ras signalling in response to Ca2+ influx(5) and activation of G-protein-coupled receptors in vitro(6), suggesting that it plays a role in neurotransmission and plasticity in vivo(7). Here we report that mice lacking Ras-GRF are impaired in the process of memory consolidation, as revealed by emotional conditioning tasks that require the function of the amygdala; learning and short-term memory are intact. Electrophysiological measurements in the basolateral amygdala reveal that long-term plasticity is abnormal in mutant mice. In contrast, Ras-GRF mutants do not reveal major deficits in spatial learning tasks such as the Morris water maze, a test that requires hippocampal function. Consistent with apparently normal hippocampal functions, Ras-GRF mutants show normal NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor-dependent long-term potentiation in this structure. These results implicate Ras-GRF signalling via the Ras/MAP kinase pathway in synaptic events leading to formation of long-term memories.