Russian scientists have discovered a cellular mechanism whose violation makes it impossible to learn. An article about this was published in Nature.
Mitochondria are cellular organelles whose job is to provide energy to the cell. At the same time, one of two independent processes of gene expression occurs in the mitochondria – the conversion of genetic information into material proteins. At the same time, the process by which ribosomes assemble in mitochondria is not fully understood.
“Two years ago, we discovered two enzymes that modify ribosomal RNA and are involved in the assembly of mitochondrial ribosomes. By analyzing the intermediate stages of the process, we determined at what stage these enzymes – methyltransferases – work, how they help assembly and what goes wrong in assembly, ”says Moscow Petr Sergiev, director of the State University Institute of Functional Genomics, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The scientists then created genetically engineered cells that did not produce the enzymes critical to assemble the mitochondrial ribosomes. The researchers then grew mice whose cells had inactivated the same enzymes.
“These rats turned out to be weak, hardy and untrainable,” said Peter Sergiev. We tried to breed them in different ways. For example, one of the standard experiments is to place the animal in a light box with several exits. All but one are at a stalemate, the same leads to the home cage, where it is cozy and comfortable. A normal mouse, finding the right exit, remembers it and immediately rushes to it next time. But a mouse with inactivated enzymes can’t remember the right path and searches for it over and over again,” the scientist continues.
According to the authors, this observed effect is explained by the role of mitochondria. They play the role of energy sources of the cell, and if their work is disrupted, the processes that consume the most energy, namely muscle contraction and thinking, suffer first of all.