Information storage is a fundamental capacity of neuronal circuits that underpins all higher cognitive
functions including long-term memory formation, working memory, behavioural control and language. The
storage of information requires alterations in strength and pattern of synaptic connections in key brain structures
such as the hippocampus. It is now clear that such memory-associated synaptic plasticity is driven by a cascade of
gene transcription and new protein synthesis. Here, we review how the use of high-throughput microarray
platforms and bioinformatic in silico analyses is now revealing an extensive, integrated transcriptional
programme underpinning synaptic plasticity that confirms roles for the previously well-characterised transcription
factors NF-κB and CREB but also implicates more novel players such as SRF, NFAT and HIF-1. The
transcriptional programme likely sees recruitment of tens of transcription factors and hundreds of genes,
orchestrated through the three core periods of synapse destabilisation, new synapse construction and selective
synapse retention. We discuss the nature of the contributions of NF-κB, CREB, SRF and NFAT to cognitionassociated
synaptic plasticity and present new data to support a biphasic role of HIF-1 during the early memory
consolidation period.
Keywords: Water maze, passive avoidance, hippocampus, long-term memory, Transcription control, HIF-1, SRF,
NFAT, CREB, NF-kB, microarray, transcription factor motif.