GRASPing experience-dependent protein expression signatures enriched for hippocampal engram cell synapses

Enhanced synaptic wiring onto sparsely distributed memory engram cells supports contextual memory storage and recall, with negative-valence memories exhibiting greater salience. Protein-level adaptations of input-specific synaptic connectivity onto hippocampal CA1 engram cells, however, remain largely unexplored. By combining spatiotemporally restricted synapse labeling, sorting, and mass spectrometry, we generated a discovery-oriented proteomic dataset from samples enriched for CA1 engram cell synapses receiving CA3 input 72 hours after neutral context exploration or aversive contextual fear conditioning. Differential analysis relative to an unlabeled comparator identified protein expression signatures associated with synapse structure, efficacy, and strength in CA1 engram cell synapses. Aversive learning induced predominantly postsynaptic protein expression patterns, whereas neutral context skewed toward presynaptic changes. This differential engram cell synapse proteome was enriched for genes linked to cognitive genetic traits and related disorders. Together, these data provide a hypothesis-generating resource for investigations into the molecular basis of contextual memory at the level of the synapse.