Characterization of a novel protein regulated during the critical period for song learning in the zebra finch.

Abstract	A male zebra finch learns a song by listening to a tutor, but song learning is normally restricted to a critical period in juvenile development. Here we identify an RNA whose expression in the song control circuit is altered during this critical period. The RNA encodes a soluble presynaptic protein that forms a predicted amphipathic alpha helix typical of the lipid-binding domain in apolipoproteins. We show this protein, which we call synelfin, to be the homolog of the human non-A beta component (and its precursor) recently purified from Alzheimer's disease amyloid. We suggest this highly conserved protein may serve a novel function critical to the regulation of vertebrate neural plasticity.
Authors	J M George, H Jin, W S Woods, D F Clayton
Journal	Neuron (Neuron) Vol. 15 Issue 2 Pg. 361-72 (Aug 1995) ISSN: 0896-6273 [Print] United States
PMID	7646890 (Publication Type: Comparative Study, Journal Article, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.)
Chemical References	Amyloid DNA, Complementary Nerve Tissue Proteins RNA, Messenger Synucleins synelfin
Topics	Alzheimer Disease (genetics) Amino Acid Sequence Amyloid (biosynthesis, chemistry, genetics, physiology) Animals Birds (genetics, physiology) Brain (embryology, growth & development, metabolism, physiology) Canaries (genetics) Cattle Consensus Sequence DNA, Complementary (genetics) Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental Humans In Situ Hybridization Learning (physiology) Male Molecular Sequence Data Nerve Tissue Proteins Neural Pathways (growth & development) Neuronal Plasticity (genetics, physiology) Phylogeny Protein Structure, Secondary RNA, Messenger (genetics, isolation & purification, physiology) Rats Sequence Alignment Sequence Homology, Amino Acid Species Specificity Subcellular Fractions (chemistry) Synucleins Torpedo (genetics) Vocalization, Animal (physiology)

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