QBI Seminar: The role of nucleosome remodeling in synaptic plasticity, memory, and intellectual disability disorders

Event Details

Date:

Tuesday, 18 August 2015 - Tuesday, 18 August 2015

Time:

11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Room:

QBI Level 7 Auditorium

UQ Location:

Queensland Brain Institute (St Lucia)

URL:

http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/neuroscience-seminars

Event category(s):

Full Description:: Professor Marcelo Wood
Chair, Department of Neurobiology and Behaviour, University of California Irvine, Irvine, USA

Title: The role of nucleosome remodeling in synaptic plasticity, memory, and intellectual disability disorders

Abstract:
Nucleosome remodeling represents one of the three major epigenetic mechanisms by which chromatin structure is regulated in the service of coordinate gene expression. We are interested in understanding how a neuron-specific nucleosome remodeling complex, nBAF, regulates gene expression required for synaptic plasticity and memory. Mutations in the various subunits of the nBAF complex are associated with several intellectual disability disorders including Autism Spectrum Disorder. In particular, we have focused on a subunit called BAF53b, which is essential for neuronal differentiation in the developing brain. We have found that BAF53b is necessary for key aspects of synaptic plasticity and memory consolidation in the adult brain. We have also found that effects on plasticity and memory may be due to BAF53b controlling dynamic cytoskeletal mechanisms at the synapse. These findings have important implications for understanding basic epigenetic mechanisms of memory as well as cognitive impairments associated with intellectual disability disorders. Thus, it is crucial to understand how nBAF-mediated gene expression underlies cognitive function and even development