Abstract
Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) is one of the most abundant protein kinases in the mammalian brain, especially in the hippocampus. Neuronal CaMKII is a multifunctional mediator of activity dependent on an increase in the Ca2+ level in excitable cells. It plays an important role in synaptic plasticity, including learning and memory, and is recognized as a “memory molecule.” The expression of the kinase increases most rapidly during the most active phase in the formation of synapses in the postnatal brain and remains at a high level after synaptic maturation, indicating that the kinase is carefully regulated in the space-temporal gene expression. It is accumulated in the postsynaptic density (PSD), which is central in synaptic transmission. This review presents the gene expression and alternative splicing of CaMKII during neural differentiation, molecular constituents of PSD, and regulation of CaMKII by activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein (Arc) mainly developed in our study.
