Transcriptional Regulation by Neuronal Activity: To the Nucleus and Back

This book discusses the regulation of gene transcription by neuronal activity that is evident in a large number of neuronal processes ranging from neural development and refinement of neuronal connections to learning and response to injury. Transcriptional Regulation by Neuronal Activity: To the Nucleus and Back, 2nd edition illustrates how signals are transmitted to the nucleus in response to neuronal activity, which genes are regulated and how this is achieved, and how these changes in gene expression alter neuronal function.  The aim of this second edition is to highlight key advances in the field since the first edition. The book is divided into four sections.  The first highlights how signals get to the nucleus from the membrane in response to synaptic or neuronal activity. Included are chapters on the pathways that transmit signals from synapses to nuclei. The second section focuses on epigenetic regulatory processes of activity-induced gene transcription, an area that has exploded in the past few years. The third section navigates the role of activity-induced genes in physiological processes such as learning and memory, and human developmental disorders such as those associated with the autism spectrum. The fourth section highlights groundbreaking technological advances in the field, which have allowed activity-regulated transcription to be used as a tool to study learning and memory.

Ramendra N Saha, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the University of California (UC) Merced where he is also the co-director of the UC Merced Center for Interdisciplinary Neuroscience. Ramen did his post-doctoral training with Serena Dudek at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, United States National Institutes of Health where he studied molecular mechanisms of activity-induced neuronal immediate early gene transcription. Now, his laboratory at UC Merced continues to study signaling and epigenetic mechanisms of excitation-transcription coupling. Ramen serves on the editorial board of Environmental Epigenetics. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5494-2584

Serena M. Dudek, Ph.D., is a Senior Investigator and the Deputy Chief of the Neurobiology Laboratory at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, United States National Institutes of Health. Her research focuses on the molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating synaptic plasticity in the developing nervous system to better understand how environmental factors shape the adult brain. Dr Dudek is best known for her early work on long-term synaptic depression (LTD) and pruning, regulation of neuronal gene transcription by action potentials, and synaptic plasticity in hippocampal area CA2. She serves on the editorial boards of Hippocampus and the Journal of Neuroscience. In addition, she is the recipient of the 2009 A.E. Bennett Research Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry. ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4094-8368