[FRIAM] Arc gene transports mRNA's across synapses.
john balwit
balwit at gmail.com
Wed Jan 17 10:32:44 EST 2018
Here's a more accessible article on this fascinating topic.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2803749/
John Balwit
On Jan 13, 2018 5:59 PM, "Roger Critchlow" <rec at elf.org> wrote:
> In case you thought you understood the general molecular biology of life,
> here's another curve ball for you:
>
> http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(17)31504-0
>
> Summary
>
> The neuronal gene *Arc* is essential for long-lasting information storage
> in the mammalian brain, mediates various forms of synaptic plasticity, and
> has been implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders. However, little is
> known about Arc’s molecular function and evolutionary origins. Here, we
> show that Arc self-assembles into virus-like capsids that encapsulate RNA.
> Endogenous Arc protein is released from neurons in extracellular vesicles
> that mediate the transfer of *Arc* mRNA into new target cells, where it
> can undergo activity-dependent translation. Purified Arc capsids are
> endocytosed and are able to transfer *Arc* mRNA into the cytoplasm of
> neurons. These results show that Arc exhibits similar molecular properties
> to retroviral Gag proteins. Evolutionary analysis indicates that Arc is
> derived from a vertebrate lineage of Ty3/*gypsy* retrotransposons, which
> are also ancestors to retroviruses. These findings suggest that Gag
> retroelements have been repurposed during evolution to mediate
> intercellular communication in the nervous system.
> -- rec --
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20180117/7b7d6c78/attachment.html>
More information about the Friam
mailing list