Title: A molecular machine for memory

Speaker: Prof. Roger Nicoll

Time:  November 13, 2024 10:00-11:30 am 

Venue: Youcai Deng Lecture Hall (#101), Jin-Guang Life Science Building

Host: Prof. Yulong Li

Student Host: Dr. Shu Xie

Abstract:

CaMKII and long-term potentiation (LTP) were discovered within a decade of each other and have been inextricably intertwined ever since. Francis Crick proposed that a memory molecule should possess two properties. First, it should be a multimeric protein with identical subunits that can phosphorylate each other. Second, to address how memories outlast molecular turnover he proposed that naïve unphosphorylated subunits could exchange into the phosphorylated multimer and become phosphorylated. In my talk I will demonstrate that autophosphorylation of CaMKII, indeed, maintains LTP (memory) by the synaptic capture of AMPA receptors and that this memory survives the protein turnover of CaMKII.