The Role of LIM Kinase 1 in Memory Processes

Modern concepts hold that intellectual problems in neurological brain damage are based on active forgetting, which is regulated by actin remodeling signal cascades dependent on small GTPases Rac and Rho. The key enzyme in these cascades is LIM kinase 1 (LIMK1). Changes in limk1 gene expression lead to neurocognitive pathologies. There is a need to create and validate simple animal models for rapid screening and testing of targeted therapeutic agents altering the protein–protein interactions of GTPases and components of signal cascades. One opportunity for this is provided by Drosophila, mutant strains of which allow the key points of the intersections of biochemical and neural networks which accompany active forgetting to be identifi ed.