Review
Towards a better understanding of cognitive behaviors regulated by gene expression downstream of activity-dependent transcription factors

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2014.08.010Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Activity-dependent TFs greatly contribute to cognitive processes.

  • Transcription cofactors (TcoFs) determine context specificity of TFs.

  • Combinatorial control via activity-regulated TFs on multiple regulatory elements.

  • Viral vectors as powerful tools to interrogate brain region-specific roles of TF/TcoF.

Abstract

In the field of molecular and cellular neuroscience, it is not a trivial task to see the forest for the trees, where numerous, and seemingly independent, molecules often work in concert to control critical steps of synaptic plasticity and signalling. Here, we will first summarize our current knowledge on essential activity-dependent transcription factors (TFs) such as CREB, MEF2, Npas4 and SRF, then examine how various transcription cofactors (TcoFs) also contribute to defining the transcriptional outputs during learning and memory. This review finally attempts a provisory synthesis that sheds new light on some of the emerging principles of neuronal circuit dynamics driven by activity-regulated gene transcription to help better understand the intricate relationship between activity-dependent gene expression and cognitive behavior.

Keywords

Activity-dependent transcription
CREB
CRTC1
SRF
MEF2
Npas4
DREAM
Memory
Virus vector

Cited by (0)