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De-regulation of gene expression and alternative splicing affects distinct cellular pathways in the aging hippocampus.

ABSTRACT: Aging is accompanied by gradually increasing impairment of cognitive abilities and constitutes the main risk factor of neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer's disease (AD). The underlying mechanisms are however not well understood. Here we analyze the hippocampal transcriptome of young adult mice and two groups of mice at advanced age using RNA sequencing. This approach enabled us to test differential expression of coding and non-coding transcripts, as well as differential splicing and RNA editing. We report a specific age-associated gene expression signature that is associated with major genetic risk factors for late-onset AD (LOAD). This signature is dominated by neuroinflammatory processes, specifically activation of the complement system at the level of increased gene expression, while de-regulation of neuronal plasticity appears to be mediated by compromised RNA splicing.

SUBMITTER: Stilling RM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4230043 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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De-regulation of gene expression and alternative splicing affects distinct cellular pathways in the aging hippocampus.

Stilling Roman M RM Benito Eva E Gertig Michael M Barth Jonas J Capece Vincenzo V Burkhardt Susanne S Bonn Stefan S Fischer Andre A

Frontiers in cellular neuroscience 20141113

Aging is accompanied by gradually increasing impairment of cognitive abilities and constitutes the main risk factor of neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer's disease (AD). The underlying mechanisms are however not well understood. Here we analyze the hippocampal transcriptome of young adult mice and two groups of mice at advanced age using RNA sequencing. This approach enabled us to test differential expression of coding and non-coding transcripts, as well as differential splicing and RNA ...[more]

PMID: 25431548

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Project description:Long-term memory formation is supported by functional and structural changes of neuronal networks, which rely on de novo gene transcription and protein synthesis. The modulation of the neuronal transcriptome in response to learning depends on transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms. DNA methylation writers and readers regulate the activity-dependent genomic program required for memory consolidation. The most abundant DNA methylation reader, the Methyl CpG binding domain protein 2 (MeCP2), has been shown to regulate alternative splicing, but whether it establishes splicing events important for memory consolidation has not been investigated. In this study, we identified the alternative splicing profile of the mouse hippocampus in basal conditions and after a spatial learning experience, and investigated the requirement of MeCP2 for these processes. We observed that spatial learning triggers a wide-range of alternative splicing events in transcripts associated with structural and functional remodeling and that virus-mediated knockdown of MeCP2 impairs learning-dependent post-transcriptional responses of mature hippocampal neurons. Furthermore, we found that MeCP2 preferentially affected the splicing modalities intron retention and exon skipping and guided the alternative splicing of distinct set of genes in baseline conditions and after learning. Lastly, comparative analysis of the MeCP2-regulated transcriptome with the alternatively spliced mRNA pool, revealed that MeCP2 disruption alters the relative abundance of alternatively spliced isoforms without affecting the overall mRNA levels. Taken together, our findings reveal that adult hippocampal MeCP2 is required to finetune alternative splicing events in basal conditions, as well as in response to spatial learning. This study provides new insight into how MeCP2 regulates brain function, particularly cognitive abilities, and sheds light onto the pathophysiological mechanisms of Rett syndrome, that is characterized by intellectual disability and caused by mutations in the Mecp2 gene.

Dataset Information

De-regulation of gene expression and alternative splicing affects distinct cellular pathways in the aging hippocampus.

Publications

De-regulation of gene expression and alternative splicing affects distinct cellular pathways in the aging hippocampus.

Similar Datasets

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