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"Memory" Transferred Between Sea Slugs Using RNA Extraction

posted by martyb on Wednesday May 16 2018, @02:18PM   
from the post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc? dept.

takyon writes:

With RNA, Researchers Transfer Memories Between Sea Slugs

In the first chunk of their study, the team, led by David Glanzman, worked with groups of a marine slug called Aplysia. One group of slugs got shocked on the tail once every 20 minutes for a total of five shocks. The next day, they went through the same shock session. The point was to prime them to use what's called a defensive withdraw reflex — basically, the slug version of a flinch.

When Glanzman and his team later physically tapped these slugs on their tails, the creatures contracted for an average of 50 seconds. But when the team tapped another, shock-free group, those slugs only shied away for about one second.

Here's where things get interesting. The researchers then extracted ribonucleic acid (RNA) — the cellular messenger that carries out the genetic instructions of DNA — from the nervous systems of both the shock and non-shock groups. They took this RNA and injected it into a third set of slugs that hadn't had to deal with any shocks or taps. Seven of these slugs got the shock group's RNA, seven got the non-shock-group's RNA.

Next, the team tapped these RNA-injected slugs on their tails. Those that had received the shock group's RNA responded almost exactly like the shock group: They recoiled for about 40 seconds. "It was as though we transferred the memory," Glanzman said in a press release.

Also at Smithsonian Magazine.

RNA from Trained Aplysia Can Induce an Epigenetic Engram for Long-Term Sensitization in Untrained Aplysia (open, DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0038-18.2018) (DX)

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Original Submission

• RNA change, really? RNA change, really? (Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Wednesday May 16 2018, @02:49PM (2 children)

  by pkrasimirov (3358) on Wednesday May 16 2018, @02:49PM (#680404)

  Do you mean to tell me that "slugs got shocked on the tail once every 20 minutes for a total of five shocks" really changes their RNA??

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• Re:RNA change, really? Re:RNA change, really? (Score: 5, Interesting) by takyon on Wednesday May 16 2018, @03:19PM (1 child)

  by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Wednesday May 16 2018, @03:19PM (#680409) Journal

  Epigenetics FTW.

  And this is not the first such experiment:

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_RNA [wikipedia.org]

  Memory RNA is a hypothetical form of RNA that was proposed by James V. McConnell and others in the 1960s as a means of explaining how long-term memories were stored in the brain . The concept behind it was that since RNA encoded information, and since living cells could produce and modify RNA in reaction to external events, it might also be used in neurons to record stimuli.

  One experiment that was purported to show a chemical basis for memory involved training planaria (flatworms) to solve an extremely simple "maze", then grinding them up and feeding them to untrained planaria to see if they would be able to learn more quickly. The experiment seemed to show such an effect, but it was later suggested that only sensitization was transferred, or that no transfer occurred and the effect was due to stress hormones in the donor. Other experiments seem to support the original findings in that some memories may be stored outside the brain.

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  • Re:RNA change, really? (Score: 2) by J053 on Wednesday May 16 2018, @09:10PM

    by J053 (3532) <{dakine} {at} {shangri-la.cx}> on Wednesday May 16 2018, @09:10PM (#680514) Homepage

    Precisely. In fact, I did the planaria experiment for a science fair back in '70 or '71 (I think it was '70, as that was the year I took biology. '71 was chemistry, and IIRC that year's project was electrolytic extraction of Mg from seawater).

    Parent