Salle Purkinje (Centre Broca Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
Raphael Lamprecht
Sagol Department of Neurobiology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
Invited by Daniel Choquet (IINS)
Title
The roles of EphB2 and ephrinB2 in long-term memory formation
Abstract
Eph receptors and their cognate ephrin ligands can signal in a bidirectional fashion between two opposing cells. They are attractive candidates to play a central role in memory formation as they are involved in the regulation of synaptic transmission and neuronal morphogenesis. We aim to explore the roles of EphB2 and ephrinB2 signaling in memory formation and enhancement. We found that activation of EphB2, using a novel technology termed optoEphB2 that allows the control of EphB2 forward signaling activity by light, enhances memory and that mice that express EphB2 that lacks forward signaling are impaired in the ability to form long-term memory. To explore the roles of ephrinB2 in memory we depleted ephrinB2 in different cell populations in the brain and studied the effect on the ability of the mice to form long-term memory. We revealed that ephrinB2 in different cell populations is essential for long-term memory formation. We also provide evidence for downstream molecular signaling pathways that can mediate EphB2 and ephrinB2 functions in memory formation.