Neuron type-specific mRNA translation programs provide a gateway for memory consolidation.

Considerable effort has been devoted to identifying molecular changes that accompany the process of consolidation, but mostly hours or days after training, when memory consolidation is already complete. Studies have shown that protein synthesis is elevated during the early stages of consolidation, but how this increase impacts neuronal function remains unclear.

We hypothesize that mRNAs translated during the early stages of consolidation could provide information on how diverse neurons involved in memory formation restructure their molecular signatures to support memory. Here, we generate a landscape of the translatome of three neuron types in the dorsal hippocampus during the first hour of contextual memory consolidation. Our results reveal that translation programs associated with consolidation are different among neurons, fueling the reconfiguration of specific biological processes.