Going retro: ancient viral origins of cognition

Matthew R Campioni; Steven Finkbeiner

doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2015.04.008

Going retro: ancient viral origins of cognition

Neuron. 2015 Apr 22;86(2):346-8. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2015.04.008.

Authors

Matthew R Campioni¹, Steven Finkbeiner²

Affiliations

¹ Gladstone Institutes of Neurological Disease, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
² Gladstone Institutes of Neurological Disease, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA; Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA; Biomedical Science Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA; Taube-Koret Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA; Hellman Family Foundation Program in Alzheimer's Disease Research, Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA; Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA; Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA. Electronic address: sfinkbeiner@gladstone.ucsf.edu.

PMID: 25905805
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2015.04.008

Abstract

In this issue of Neuron, Zhang et al. (2015) provide the first crystal structure of a domain Arc. These results confirm prior computational approaches that suggested Arc, a master regulator of vertebrate synaptic plasticity, was "domesticated" from Ty3/Gypsy retrotransposons.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Animals
Cognition Disorders / metabolism*
Genes, Immediate-Early / physiology*
Neuronal Plasticity / physiology*
Retroelements / physiology*
Synapses / metabolism*

Substances

Retroelements