Inducible Proto-oncogene Transcription Factors: Third Messengers in the Brain?

Neglected for several years, the nucleus is now un-dergoing a renaissance in neurobiology. Although it has long been appreciated that the diversity of the nervous system must have its basis in the selective regulation of gene expression and there have been many indications that altered gene expression contri-butes to processes that underlie neural p asticity, it is only recently that the specific molecular probes for studying such phenomena have become available (see, e.g., Vaessin et al.; Jones et al.; Schacher et al.; Worley et al.; all this volume). A great deal of effort is now being directed toward understanding the molecular events that occur in the nucleus to orchestrate cell-type-specific and stimulus-evoked alterations in gene regula-tion. Although the neuron has many unique properties, it is becoming increasingly clear that its behavior is governed by many of the same signaling molecules that operate in other cell types. We have borrowed concepts and reagents from the field of oncogene research and applied these to the study of the nervous ystem. Here, we describe the several steps that have l d us to suggest that the very same transcription factors that have been implicated in the regulation of cell growth, and that are capable of causing oncogenic transformation, also play a role as inducible transcription factors in stimulus-response coupling in the nervous system.