Engram-specific transcriptome profiling of contextual memory consolidation.

ABSTRACT: Sparse populations of neurons in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus are causally implicated in the encoding of contextual fear memories. However, engram-specific molecular mechanisms underlying memory consolidation remain largely unknown. Here we perform unbiased RNA sequencing of DG engram neurons 24 h after contextual fear conditioning to identify transcriptome changes specific to memory consolidation. DG engram neurons exhibit a highly distinct pattern of gene expression, in which CREB-dependent transcription features prominently (P = 6.2 × 10^-13), including Atf3 (P = 2.4 × 10^-41), Penk (P = 1.3 × 10^-15), and Kcnq3 (P = 3.1 × 10^-12). Moreover, we validate the functional relevance of the RNAseq findings by establishing the causal require

SUBMITTER: Rao-Ruiz P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6527697 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature