Publications by authors named "F Pecoraro-Bisogni"
Increasing evidence points to the importance of dendritic spines in the formation and allocation of memories, and alterations of spine number and physiology are associated to memory and cognitive disorders. Modifications of the activity of subsets of synapses are believed to be crucial for memory establishment. However, the development of a method to directly test this hypothesis, by selectively controlling the activity of potentiated spines, is currently lagging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Homeostatic plasticity helps maintain stable neuronal activity by adjusting synaptic strength or intrinsic excitability in response to sustained changes.
- Recent research shows that the protein REST is crucial for this process, reducing intrinsic excitability and synaptic strength when neurons experience prolonged electrical activity.
- REST functions at the presynaptic level, decreasing synaptic vesicle pool sizes through gene repression, highlighting its role as a key player in both forms of homeostatic plasticity.
Optogenetics provides new ways to activate gene transcription; however, no attempts have been made as yet to modulate mammalian transcription factors. We report the light-mediated regulation of the repressor element 1 (RE1)-silencing transcription factor (REST), a master regulator of neural genes. To tune REST activity, we selected two protein domains that impair REST-DNA binding or recruitment of the cofactor mSin3a.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF