Different forms of MARCKS protein are involved in memory formation in the learning process of imprinting

There is strong evidence that a restricted part of the chick forebrain, the IMM (formerly IMHV), stores information acquired through the learning process of visual imprinting. Twenty-four hours after imprinting training, a learning-specific increase in amount of myristoylated, alanine-rich C-kinase substrate (MARCKS) protein is known to occur in the homogenate fraction of IMM. We investigated the two components of this fraction, membrane-bound and cytoplasmic-phosphorylated MARCKS. In IMM, amount of membrane-bound MARCKS, but not of cytoplasmic-phosphorylated MARCKS, increased as chicks learned. No changes were observed for either form of MARCKS in PPN, a control forebrain region. The results indicate that there is a learning-specific increase in membrane-bound, non-phosphorylated MARCKS 24 h after training. This increase might contribute to stabilization of synaptic morphology.