ArticlePLoS computational biology2012
Cytoskeletal signaling: is memory encoded in microtubule lattices by CaMKII phosphorylation?
Article in PLoS computational biology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 158 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Self-referential processing as the biological switch between classical and quantum functioning of the brain.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Can Theta Burst Electromagnetic Fields Disrupt Learning in Planaria? Evidence of Impaired Fear-Conditioned Responses.Bioelectromagnetics · 2025Article
- Consciousness and spintronic coherence in microtubules.Communicative & integrative biology · 2025Article
- The quantum-classical complexity of consciousness and orchestrated objective reduction.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- A quantum microtubule substrate of consciousness is experimentally supported and solves the binding and epiphenomenalism problems.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2025Article
- Conscious active inference II: Quantum orchestrated objective reduction among intraneuronal microtubules naturally accounts for discrete perceptual cycles.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2025Review
- Non-linearity, complexity, and quantization concepts in biology.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Non-Equilibrium Quantum Brain Dynamics: Water Coupled with Phonons and Photons.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The effects of chronic morphine administration on spatial memory and microtubule dynamicity in male mice's brain.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2024Article
- Targeting the cytoskeleton as a therapeutic approach to substance use disorders.Pharmacological research · 2024Review
- Future medicine: from molecular pathways to the collective intelligence of the body.Trends in molecular medicine · 2023Review
- Cytoelectric coupling: Electric fields sculpt neural activity and "tune" the brain's infrastructure.Progress in neurobiology · 2023Article
- Darwin's agential materials: evolutionary implications of multiscale competency in developmental biology.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2023Review
- A Quantum-Classical Model of Brain Dynamics.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Learning in the Single-Cell OrganismInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- There's Plenty of Room Right Here: Biological Systems as Evolved, Overloaded, Multi-Scale Machines.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Toward a holographic brain paradigm: a lipid-centric model of brain functioning.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Memory is attributed to strengthened synaptic connections among particular brain neurons, yet synaptic membrane components are transient, whereas memories can endure. This suggests synaptic information is encoded and 'hard-wired' elsewhere, e.g. at molecular levels within the post-synaptic neuron. In long-term potentiation (LTP), a cellular and molecular model for memory, post-synaptic calcium ion (Ca²⁺) flux activates the hexagonal Ca²⁺-calmodulin dependent kinase II (CaMKII), a dodacameric holoenzyme containing 2 hexagonal sets of 6 kinase domains. Each kinase domain can either phosphorylate substrate proteins, or not (i.e. encoding one bit). Thus each set of extended CaMKII kinases can potentially encode synaptic Ca²⁺ information via phosphorylation as ordered arrays of binary 'bits'. Candidate sites for CaMKII phosphorylation-encoded molecular memory include microtubules (MTs), cylindrical organelles whose surfaces represent a regular lattice with a pattern of hexagonal polymers of the protein tubulin. Using molecular mechanics modeling and electrostatic profiling, we find that spatial dimensions and geometry of the extended CaMKII kinase domains precisely match those of MT hexagonal lattices. This suggests sets of six CaMKII kinase domains phosphorylate hexagonal MT lattice neighborhoods collectively, e.g. conveying synaptic information as ordered arrays of six "bits", and thus "bytes", with 64 to 5,281 possible bit states per CaMKII-MT byte. Signaling and encoding in MTs and other cytoskeletal structures offer rapid, robust solid-state information processing which may reflect a general code for MT-based memory and information processing within neurons and other eukaryotic cells.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.