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Neuroscience

Memory and the single molecule

Nature volume 493, pages 312–313 (2013)Cite this article

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Sustained activity of the brain-specific enzyme PKM-ζ is thought to underlie the maintenance of long-term memories. Studies in PKM-ζ-deficient mice, however, cast the importance of this protein into question. See Letters p.416 & p.420

Memory traces are thought to be formed by the strengthening of synaptic connections between particular collections of neurons. A major goal of neuroscience research is to identify the molecular machinery that sustains these strengthened connections once they are formed. Many molecules that were once thought to have starring roles in memory have since been relegated to supporting, albeit still important, roles. Two papers in this issue (Volk et al.1 and Lee et al.2)Footnote 1 challenge the star status of yet another memory molecule — protein kinase M-ζ.

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Notes

  1. *This article and the paper under discussion1,2 were published online on 2 January 2013.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Canada. They are also in the Departments of Psychology and of Physiology and at the Institute of Medical Science, Paul W. Frankland and Sheena A. Josselyn are in the Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X8, University of Toronto.,

    Paul W. Frankland & Sheena A. Josselyn

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  1. Paul W. Frankland
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  2. Sheena A. Josselyn
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Correspondence to Paul W. Frankland.

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Frankland, P., Josselyn, S. Memory and the single molecule. Nature 493, 312–313 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11850

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