Memory Gene Goes Viral.

• Position: NEUROSCIENCE - Arc

A gene crucial for learning, called Arc, can send its genetic material from one neuron to another by employing a strategy commonly used by viruses. This discovery was made by two independent teams of scientists from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester. The studies, both published in Cell, unveil a new way that nervous system cells interact.

"What began as an effort to examine the behavior of a gene involved in memory and implicated in neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease has unexpectedly led to the discovery of an entirely new process, which neurons may use to send genetic information to one another," says Edmund Talley, program director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Md.

While Arc is known to play a vital role in the brain's ability to store new information, little is known about precisely how it works. In addition, previous studies had detailed similarities between the Arc protein and proteins found in certain viruses like HIV, but it was unclear how those commonalities influenced the behavior of the Arc protein.

The Utah researchers began their examination of the Arc gene by introducing it into bacterial cells. To their surprise, when the cells made the Arc protein, it clumped together into a form that resembled a viral capsid, the shell that contains a virus' genetic information. The Arc...