For nearly 40 years, scientists have known about strange structures inside cells called vaults. They are tiny, barrel-shaped complexes that move around inside cells and, under the right conditions, can open and close.
Now, researchers from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) have found evidence that these tiny cellular “spaceships” may play an important role in how the brain forms memories.
Professor Timothy Bredy from QBI’s Centre for RNA in Neuroscience said their latest study, led by PhD student Mr Mason Musgrove and published in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, suggests vaults act like transport vehicles inside neurons (pictured in video below).
“They’re interesting little particles structurally,” Professor Bredy said.
“They look a little like miniature spaceships, but no one ever really knew what they do.
“This study gives us the first evidence of the contents inside these complex structures inside neurons and the first demonstration that they could be involved in memory.
“We found vaults can carry RNA between different parts of a neuron and that a particular RNA molecule called Vaultrc5 appears to help coordinate this movement.
“We stumbled onto vaults because of noncoding RNA that was attached to them.
“It was one of the most abundant transcripts hanging out in the synapse of neurons, and it was very responsive to learning.”
RNA is a molecule that carries genetic instructions and helps cells make, move and control the messages they need to function.
Noncoding RNAs do not make proteins, but they are master regulators of cell activity. When the researchers reduced Vaultrc5, the vaults changed how they moved and what they carried.
Instead of transporting RNA linked to brain plasticity, the vaults began carrying RNA linked to immune surveillance, the cell’s way of checking for, and responding to, possible threats.
“What we found is that this particular noncoding RNA is critical for coordinating the trafficking activity and content of vaults,” Mr Musgrove (pictured) said.
The findings do not solve the mystery of memory, but they add a surprising new clue.
In other words, the brain’s ability to learn may depend on tiny vaults delivering the right messages to the right place at the right time.
