Cocaine-Induced Chromatin Modifications Associate With Increased Expression and Three-Dimensional Looping of Auts2.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Exposure to drugs of abuse alters the epigenetic landscape of the brain's reward regions, such as the nucleus accumbens. We investigated how combinations of chromatin modifications affect genes that regulate responses to cocaine. We focused on Auts2, a gene linked to human evolution and cognitive disorders, which displays strong clustering of cocaine-induced chromatin modifications in this brain region.

Methods

We combined chromosome conformation capture, circularized chromosome conformation capture, and related approaches with behavioral paradigms relevant to cocaine phenotypes. Cell type-specific functions were assessed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting and viral-mediated overexpression in Cre-dependent mouse lines.

Results

We observed that Auts2 gen

SUBMITTER: Engmann O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5671915 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature