Tiny RNA molecules fine-tune the brain’s synapses
January 19, 2006 | Source: KurzweilAI
MicroRNAs, tiny, recently discovered RNA molecules from non-coding regions of the genome that suppress gene expression, affect the development of synapses by regulating the size of dendritic spines.
The findings appear in the January 19th issue of Nature. “This paper provides the first evidence that microRNAs have a role at the synapse, allowing for a new level of regulation of gene expression,” says senior author Michael Greenberg, PhD, Director of Neuroscience at Children’s Hospital Boston. “What we’ve found is a new mechanism for regulating brain function.”
Greenberg believes that miR-134 — and other microRNAs his lab is studying — may play a role in fine-tuning cognitive function by selectively controlling synapse development in response to environmental stimuli. “A single neuron can form a thousand synapses,” says Greenberg, also a professor of neurology and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School. “If you could selectively control what’s happening at one synapse without affecting another, you greatly increase the information storage and computational capacity of the brain.”