Researchers develop new approach for studying experience-driven activity of transcription factors

Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych. (Editor)Dec 26 2019

Our brains have a remarkable knack for adaptability. Each and every day the neuronal connections within are constantly changing, molded by what we experience in our daily lives. The memories we make, information learned and skills we pick up spark this dynamic process, causing lasting changes to neuronal circuits. As the saying goes, experience is the best teacher and it couldn't be truer for our brains.

Along with learning and memory, sensory experiences such as listening to music or appreciating a stunning view also have a similar effect on the brain. Incoming sensory information activates neurons in the cortex, causing long term modifications to the circuitry depending on what we experience. This process called experience dependent plasticity, is part of the reason why our brains develop differently due to unique individual life experiences.

But how do our brains convert relatively short-lasting neuronal activity into the long-term changes driven by our sensory experiences? The key lies in specialized proteins called activity-dependent transcription factors. Responding to neuronal activity, these factors activate genes within the cell helping to translate rapid incoming signaling into slower, lasting changes. Despite the importance of activity dependent transcription to development and long-term plasticity in the brain is evident, it was impossible to directly monitor transcription factors activity. This was mainly due to the lack of available tools to study the interaction between neuronal activity and transcription factor activation that occurs in an intact, living brain.

In a recently published study in Neuron, Scientists in the Yasuda Lab at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI) have designed and developed novel biosensors that allow the simultaneous study of both sensory evoked neuronal activity and transcription factor dynamics. Coupling the specialized techniques of 2-photon calcium imaging with 2-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging (2pFLIM), scientists for the first time ever will have the unique ability to investigate how transcription factors function in a living brain with single cell resolution.

Transcription factor activity in the brain isn't a static, but rather a very dynamic process that can occur on the order of hours to days after a sensory experience. Traditional methods of studying these proteins involve freezing brain tissue at a single moment in time. So, while these approaches can tell you if a certain factor is activated or not, they aren't good at capturing how experience shapes transcription factor activity over time. We wanted to develop a new way to study how this process is actually occurring in a living brain and chose to study CREB due to its strong involvement in plasticity, learning and memory."

Dr. Tal Laviv, Research Fellow in the Yasuda Lab and leading author of the paper

MPFI scientists started by creating sensitive and specific 2pFLIM biosensors designed to report the direct activity of cAMP response-element binding protein or "CREB" for short. Packaging their newly generated sensors using an adeno-associated viral strategy (AAVs), the team then expressed them in a population of neurons within the somatosensory cortex of mice. Changes in environment are known to activate this brain region and in response, the neurons within modulate numerous signaling molecules including CREB. But little is known about the temporal dynamics of CREB activation after a change to the environment. Using the 2pFLIM CREB sensor, the team chronically monitored CREB activity in the same population of neurons while mice experienced an enriched environment. The enriched environment caused a significant increase in overall CREB activity. Interestingly, when mice were removed from the enriched environment for an extended period of time, CREB activity returned to normal levels indicating sensory experience as a driver for the sustained activity.

Next, MPFI scientists sought to unravel how sensory experiences and neuronal activation shape CREB activity in the living brain. To do so, the team expressed the CREB sensor and a sensor of neuronal activity (calcium sensor) in the visual cortex of mice. Previous studies have shown that when mice are temporarily deprived of visual stimuli and placed in dark housing, neuronal plasticity was increased in the visual cortex. In the new study, visual cortical neurons were imaged in dark-reared mice during presentation of a visual stimuli. Both calcium and CREB dynamics in single cells were simultaneously imaged for prolonged periods of time. The results revealed a dynamic regulation of CREB activity in the visual cortex: Dark reared mice displayed dramatically increased levels of visually evoked CREB compared to mice raised in normal light/dark conditions. In addition, CREB activity levels were maintained for a period of at least one day in dark-reared mice. Intriguingly this elevated CREB activity was not due to elevated calcium levels within individual neurons, indicating that sensory experience can finely tune the sensitivity of activity dependent transcription in the living brain.

This unique approach can be broadly applied to many different types of transcription factors in the future and will allow an unprecedented opportunity to unravel the transcriptional dynamics underlying experience-dependent plasticity in the brain.