Passive avoidance learning in the young chick results in time- and locus-specific elevations of α-tubulin immunoreactivity

A monoclonal antibody was used to examine changes in immunoreactivity of the cytoskeletal protein, α-tubulin, following passive avoidance learning in day-old chicks. Postmitochondrial fractions (16,000 g supernatants) were prepared from specific forebrain loci taken at several time points after training and assayed with the anti-α-tubulin antibody, YL1/2. Of the regions examined, elevations in the titre of YL1/2 were found in the left intermediate hyperstriatum ventrale 1 h, 6 h and 24 h following training, in the left lobus parolfactorius 1 h following training and in the right lobus parolfactorius 6 h and 24 h following training. No training-related changes were detected in a third forebrain region, the paleostriatum augmentatum. These results regarding the cellular dynamics of memory formation in the chick confirm and expand on earlier findings from our laboratory (Mileusnic, Rose and Tillson, 1980). J. Neurochem 34, 1007–1015.