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Transcriptional Coactivator and Chromatin Protein PC4 Is Involved in Hippocampal Neurogenesis and Spatial Memory Extinction
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Transcriptional Coactivator and Chromatin Protein PC4 Is Involved in Hippocampal Neurogenesis and Spatial Memory Extinction

Amrutha Swaminathan, Hélène Delage, Snehajyoti Chatterjee, Laurence Belgarbi-Dutron, Raphaelle Cassel, Nicole Martinez, Brigitte Cosquer, Sujata Kumari, Fabien Mongelard, Béatrice Lannes, …
The Journal of biological chemistry, Vol.291(39), pp.20303-20314
09/2016
DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M116.744169
PMCID: PMC5034031
PMID: 27471272
url
https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M116.744169View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Although the elaborate combination of histone and non-histone protein complexes defines chromatin organization and hence regulates numerous nuclear processes, the role of chromatin organizing proteins remains unexplored at the organismal level. The highly abundant, multifunctional, chromatin-associated protein and transcriptional coactivator positive coactivator 4 (PC4/Sub1) is absolutely critical for life, because its absence leads to embryonic lethality. Here, we report results obtained with conditional PC4 knock-out (PC4f/f Nestin-Cre) mice where PC4 is knocked out specifically in the brain. Compared with the control (PC4+/+ Nestin-Cre) mice, PC4f/f Nestin-Cre mice are smaller with decreased nocturnal activity but are fertile and show no motor dysfunction. Neurons in different areas of the brains of these mice show sensitivity to hypoxia/anoxia, and decreased adult neurogenesis was observed in the dentate gyrus. Interestingly, PC4f/f Nestin-Cre mice exhibit a severe deficit in spatial memory extinction, whereas acquisition and long term retention were unaffected. Gene expression analysis of the dorsal hippocampus of PC4f/f Nestin-Cre mice revealed dysregulated expression of several neural function-associated genes, and PC4 was consistently found to localize on the promoters of these genes, indicating that PC4 regulates their expression. These observations indicate that non-histone chromatin-associated proteins like PC4 play a significant role in neuronal plasticity.
chromatin structure gene expression hypoxia Knockout neurogenesis Spatial memory transgenic mice

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