In neurons, there is increasing evidence that local dendritic protein synthesis is used to allow individual synapses to respond dynamically to the environmental changes that accompany the establishment, maintenance and plasticity of synaptic connections. Furthermore, it is now well established that the essential components of the translational machinery as well as mRNAs are present at or near synapses and that dendrites can synthesize new proteins. Despite this, only a limited number of locally translated proteins have been identified so far, mainly through candidate-based approaches inspired by a particular laboratory's interest in protein """"""""x"""""""" or """"""""y"""""""" ?r by mRNA generation from single neuritic process with subsequent PCR experiments. However, we believe that a focus on translated proteins is essential for an accurate picture of how the synapse and the dendrite can mount a response to local changes in the environment. Current available methods to evaluate changes in the protein composition of a cell or of a cellular compartment rely on the comparison of two proteomes with one another. These differential approaches are successful only when proteins are present in sufficient quantity to be detected and when there are large differences in protein expression levels between the compared proteomes. Here we describe the development of a new high-throughput proteomic profiling technique to isolate and identify the translation products in neuronal dendrites and to determine the quantitative translational capability of dendrites under both basal and stimulated conditions. Specifically, we propose a procedure that uses artificial amino acids for the labeling of newly synthesized dendritic proteins in situ, thereby circumventing problems of traditional approaches. The obtained proteomic datasets will help us to understand the logic of local translation. This technology can be easily applied to many proteomic profiling questions, regardless of tissue type or cellular context. The changes in dendritic proteins that underly the synaptic modifications associated with plasticity, including addiction, can be elucidated using this technique. ? ?
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