Neuronal activity triggers communication cascades that lead to a variety of effects, such as metabolic changes and structural and functional plasticity in neurons. Despite studies showing activity-dependent, cell type-specific transcriptional changes in neuronal cells, cellular heterogeneity and a relatively low abundance of NSPs in the brain's proteome have made it difficult to conduct unbiased quantitative analyses of cell-specific activity-induced dynamics in Newly Synthesized Proteins (NSPs) synthesis in vivo. Here, we paired tightly timed treatment with the no canonical amino acid azidonorleucine to biotinylated NSP with targeted production of mutant MetRS (methionine tRNA synthetase) in genetically specified cortical glutamatergic neurons.
