The mRNA-Binding Protein RBM3 Regulates Activity Patterns and Local Synaptic Translation in Cultured Hippocampal Neurons

Authors

Sertel SM, von Elling-Tammen MS, Rizzoli SO

Journal

Journal of Neuroscience

Citation

J Neurosci. 2021 Feb 10;41(6):1157-1173.

Abstract

The activity and the metabolism of the brain change rhythmically during the day/night cycle. Such rhythmicity is also observed in cultured neurons from the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is a critical center in rhythm maintenance. However, this issue has not been extensively studied in cultures from areas less involved in timekeeping, as the hippocampus. Using neurons cultured from the hippocampi of newborn rats (both male and female), we observed significant time-dependent changes in global activity, in synaptic vesicle dynamics, in synapse size, and in synaptic mRNA amounts. A transcriptome analysis of the neurons, performed at different times over 24 h, revealed significant changes only for RNA-binding motif 3 (Rbm3). RBM3 amounts changed, especially in synapses. RBM3 knockdown altered synaptic vesicle dynamics and changed the neuronal activity patterns. This procedure also altered local translation in synapses, albeit it left the global cellular translation unaffected. We conclude that hippocampal cultured neurons can exhibit strong changes in their activity levels over 24 h, in an RBM3-dependent fashion.

DOI

10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0921-20.2020

Pubmed Link