2011 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 018-021
The transcription factor, cAMP response element binding protein (CREB), is involved in formation of long-term memory in the brain of many species. There are at least two different isoforms of CREB: the activator isoform (CREB1) and the repressor isoform (CREB2). By use of quantitative real-time PCR, we succeeded in determining CREB1 and CREB2 mRNA copy numbers in the single neuron that plays a key role in the associative learning of the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis. Further, we characterized the spliced variants of CREB1 mRNA and analyzed the relation between the learning behavior of snails and the expression pattern of these CREB1 mRNA variants in the brain of the learned snails. We here discuss the function and the quantitative changes in CREB isoforms and variants of the snail brain in long-term memory.
