A low-abundance class of Dicer-dependent siRNAs produced from a variety of features in .

Canonical small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are processed from double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) by Dicer and associate with Argonautes to direct RNA silencing. In , 22G-RNAs and 26G-RNAs are often referred to as siRNAs but display distinct characteristics. For example, 22G-RNAs do not originate from dsRNA and do not depend on Dicer, whereas 26G-RNAs require Dicer but derive from an atypical RNA duplex and are produced exclusively antisense to their messenger RNA (mRNA) templates.

Axonal mitochondria regulate gentle touch response through control of axonal actin dynamics.

Actin in neuronal processes is both stable and dynamic. The origin & functional roles of the different pools of actin is not well understood. We find that mutants that lack mitochondria, and , in neuronal processes also lack dynamic actin.

Activity-dependent mitochondrial ROS signaling regulates recruitment of glutamate receptors to synapses.

Our understanding of mitochondrial signaling in the nervous system has been limited by the technical challenge of analyzing mitochondrial function in vivo. In the transparent genetic model we were able to manipulate and measure mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mitoROS) signaling of individual mitochondria as well as neuronal activity of single neurons in vivo. Using this approach, we provide evidence supporting a novel role for mitoROS signaling in dendrites of excitatory glutamatergic interneurons.

A Necessary Role for PKC-2 and TPA-1 in Olfactory Memory and Synaptic AMPAR Trafficking in .

Protein kinase C (PKC) functions are essential for synaptic plasticity, learning, and memory. However, the roles of specific members of the PKC family in synaptic function, learning, and memory are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the role of individual PKC homologs for synaptic plasticity in and found a differential role for and , but not and in associative olfactory learning and memory.