Received: 12 September 2017 | Revised: 28 February 2018 | Accepted: 11 March 2018 DOI: 10.1002/hipo.22841 RESEARCH ARTICLE Shifting patterns of polyribosome accumulation at synapses over the course of hippocampal long-term potentiation Linnaea E. Ostroff1 | Deborah J. Watson2 | Guan Cao2 | Patrick H. Parker2 | Heather Smith2 | Kristen M. Harris2 1Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, University of Connecticut, Abstract Storrs, Connecticut 06269 Hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) is a cellular memory mechanism. For LTP to endure, 2Department of Neuroscience, Center for new protein synthesis is required immediately after induction and some of these proteins must be Learning and Memory, Institute for delivered to specific, presumably potentiated, synapses. Local synthesis in dendrites could rapidly Neuroscience, University of Texas at Austin, provide new proteins to synapses, but the spatial distribution of translation following induction of Austin, Texas 78731 LTP is not known. Here, we quantified polyribosomes, the sites of local protein synthesis, in CA1 Correspondence stratum radiatum dendrites and spines from postnatal day 15 rats. Hippocampal slices were rapidly Linnaea E. Ostroff, Department of fixed at 5, 30, or 120 min after LTP induction by theta-burst stimulation (TBS). Dendrites were Physiology and Neurobiology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 reconstructed through serial section electron microscopy from comparable regions near the TBS or Email:
[email protected] control electrodes in the same slice, and in unstimulated hippocampus that was perfusion-fixed in Kristen M. Harris, Department of vivo. At 5 min after induction of LTP, polyribosomes were elevated in dendritic shafts and spines, Neuroscience, Center for Learning and especially near spine bases and in spine heads.