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Circadian regulation of a CREB-responsive reporter measured in
vivo from a transgenic fly.
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Jerry Yin Associate Professor Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1986 Molecular neurobiology; learning and memory in Drosophila and mice; signal transduction; CREB email yin@cshl.edu, phone (516) 367-8878, fax (516) 367-8880
We are utilizing the complementary advantages of Drosophila and mice to study these general problems. Because memory is an emergent property of neuronal circuits, one of the important goals is to identify anatomical regions of the brain and individual neurons within these regions that participate in memory formation. Strategies based on forward and reverse genetics combined with reporter genes are being implemented to access these neurons and their genes. Selected Publications Yin, J.C.P., J.S. Wallach, M. Del Vecchio, E.L. Wilder, H. Zhou, W.G. Quinn, and T. Tully. 1994. Induction of a dominant negative CREB transgene specifically blocks long-term memory in Drosophila. Cell 79: 49–58. Yin, J.C.P., M. Del Vecchio, H. Zhou, and T. Tully. 1995. CREB as a memory modulator: Induced expression of a dCREB2 activator isoform enhances long-term memory in Drosophila. Cell 81: 107–115. Yin, J.C.P. and T. Tully. 1996. CREB and the formation of long-term memory. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 6: 264–268. Belvin, M.P., H. Zhou, and J.C.P. Yin. 1999. The Drosophila dCREB2 gene affects the circadian clock. Neuron 22: 777–787. Stebbins, M. J. and J.C.P. Yin. 2001. Adaptable doxycycline-regulated gene expression systems for Drosophila. Gene 270: 103–111. |
We are interested in molecular mechanisms that are involved in long-term memory formation. One area of research involves the regulation of memory formation and focuses on what critical molecular events are needed to induce the formation of protein synthesis-dependent long-term memory. A second area of research is focused on the identity and molecular mechanisms of the "synaptic tag". When neuron-wide events (such as transcription and gene expression) occur during long-term memory formation, there must be molecular mechanisms that confer and maintain synaptic specificity. A third area of interest is the maintenance of long-term memories. How is it that memories can persist for a lifetime, while the proteins and structures that are part of the memory formation process have defined half-lives that are much shorter?