Arc Research

The Activity-Regulated Cytoskeleton-associated (Arc) protein is anything but a typical immediate-early gene. Post-transcription, Arc mRNA traffics from the soma of neurons to the dendrites (Steward, 1998). When Arc was knocked out, mice performed significantly worse on numerous memory tasks illustrating Arc’s involvement in memory formation (Plath, 2006). Interestingly, Arc evolved from Ty3/gypsy retrotransposons, and thus has been shown to form retrovirus-like capsids that enclose its mRNA (Pastuzyn, 2018). As a virology lab, we are interested in the retroviral nature of this endogenous retrovirus-like memory-associated protein. Therefore, we are investigating Arc’s capsid assembly and transport of materials between neurons to understand Arc’s role in memory formation.

Using transmission electron microscopy, we confirm that purified Human (left) and Rat (right) Arc proteins form retrovirus-like structures.