Sunday, March 15, 2009

Timeline: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience of Learning and Memory

Here is an evolving time line of the history of the molecular and cellular neuroscience of memory. I say it's evolving, because it is ridiculously incomplete and I intend to update it quite a bit. If there are any inaccuracies or important omissions, let me know. I've included a few important developments in molecular genetics outside of neuroscience because they made possible later critical research in neurogenetics.

1913 Sturtevant discovers linear order of genes
1920 Sturtevant publishes series of articles entitled "Genetic Studies On Drosophila simulans"
1926 Hermann Joseph Muller introduces X-ray mutagenesis
1950 Katz & Halstead hypothesize that memory traces depend on protein synthesis
1957 Scoville & Milner publish on HM
1960 Curtis &Watkins discover glutamate is major brain NT
1963 Flexner shows memory is affected by protein synthesis in mice
1968 Discovery of PKA by Walsh & Krebs
1971 John O'Keefe discovers place cells
1973 Bliss and Lomo discover LTP
1973 Cohen & Boyer introduce a method for creating recombinant plasmids
1974 Jaenisch creates first transgenic mouse using retrovirus
1978 Dunwiddie & Lynch showed LTP depends on extracellular Ca+
1979 Evans and Watkins discover AMPA receptors using quisqualate
1979 Dunwiddie & Lynch show blocking extracellular Ca+ blocks LTP but leaves synaptic transmission, facilitation and PTP intact
1980 Baudry & Lynch first propose receptor unmasking theory of LTP
1982 Morris shows watermaze performance is hippocampal dependent
1982 Turner, Baimbridge and Miller showed transient increase of extracellular Ca+ is sufficient to induce an LTP-like response
1983 Collingridge finds glutamate acts on NMDA receptors in the hippocampus
1983 Lynch using EGTA shows that hippocampal LTP is intracellular Ca+-dependent
1983 Nairn & Greengard discover CaMKII and that synapsin is one of its substrates
1984 Davis & Squire publish influential review "Protein Synthesis and Memory"
1985 Lisman gives theoretical discussion of how an autophosphorylating kinase could serve as a LTM switch
1986 Morris shows blocking NMDA receptor blocks LTP & spatial learning
1986 Montminy showed cAMP regulates somatostatin expression
1987 Montminy introduces CREB as a regulator of somatostatin transcription
1988 Malenka & Nicoll discover second messenger role of Ca+ in triggering LTP
1988 Yamamoto shows that CREB stimulates cAMP transcription
1989 Gonzalez & Montminy show that cAMP stimulates somatostatin transcription via CREB phosphorylation
1989 Malenka & Nicoll showed that LTP depends on CaMKII phosphorylation
1991 Sheng, Thompson & Greenberg suggest that CREB is regulated by CaMKII (turns out false)
1992 Silva shows that null mutation for CaMKII disrupts LTP + spatial learning, first knockout study in neuroscience of learning and memory
1993 Bliss & Collingridge outline their synaptic model of hippocampal-dependent memory, providing roles for both NMDARs & AMPARs
1994 Bourtchuladze shows LTM but not STM affected in CREB mutants
1995 Bartsch shows that CREB can facilitate synaptic growth in Aplysia
1995 Bannerman & Morris upstairs/downstairs experiment
1995 Lledo Malenka & Nicoll show that CaMKII is sufficient to induce LTP
1995 Isaac, Nicoll & Malenka provide evidence for silent synapses AMPARs
1996 Mayford & Kandel introduce CaMKII transgenics
1996 McHugh & Tonegawa show impaired place fields in NMDAR1 knockouts
1996 Rotenberg, Mayford & Kandel show mice expressing activated CaMKII lack low frequency LTP and do not form stable place fields in CA1