Experience-Dependent Gene Expression in the Rat Hippocampus after Spatial Learning: A Comparison of the Immediate-Early GenesArc, c-fos, and zif268

By John Guzowski, B. Setlow, E. Wagner, James McGaugh. Journal of Neuroscience, 2001

723 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Neuronal immediate-early gene (IEG) expression is regulated by synaptic activity and plays an important role in the neuroplastic mechanisms critical to memory consolidation. IEGs can be divided into two functional classes: (1) regulatory transcription factors (RTFs), which can broadly influence cell function depending on the “downstream” genes they regulate, and (2) “effector” proteins, which may directly modulate specific cellular functions. The objective of the current study was to determine whether the expression of an effector IEG (Arc) was similar to, or different from, that of two well characterized RTF IEGs (c-fos andzif268) after learning. IEG RNA levels from rats trained in spatial and nonspatial water tasks were determined using RNase protection assays and in situ hybridization. Overall, the regulation of the three IEGs was similar in the hippocampus and the entorhinal and primary visual cortices. Consequently, IEG RNA levels were positively correlated within a structure. By contrast,Arc and zif268 RNA levels were not correlated or only weakly correlated across structures, although c-fos RNA levels were moderately correlated across structures. Arc RNA expression differed from that ofzif268 and c-fos in two regards: (1) hippocampal Arc RNA levels were correlated with learning of the hippocampal-dependent spatial, but not hippocampal-independent cued response, water task, and (2) Arc RNA levels in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex increased after spatial reversal learning relative to an asymptotic performance group. Thus, although the expression of Arc, zif268, and c-fos exhibited many similarities, Arcwas most responsive to differences in behavioral task demands.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience, Developmental Neuroscience

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/498f90cc8531711f1b5656bc6e90247f25bf7fc4

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Citations in the corpus

Transcription Factors in Long-Term Memory and Synaptic Plasticity (2009, neutral): “With repeated trials, its upregulation is attenuated (81, 203, 255).”
Immune modulation of learning, memory, neural plasticity and neurogenesis. (2011, neutral): “As stated above, the immediate early gene Arc is critically involved in learning, memory and synaptic plasticity (Guzowski et al., 2001).”
Experience-Specific Functional Modification of the Dentate Gyrus through Adult Neurogenesis: A Critical Period during an Immature Stage (2007, methodology): “…(Cole et al., 1989), is required for synaptic plasticity and memory formation (Jones et al., 2001; Fleischmann et al., 2003), is often used as a marker of neuronal activity (Guzowski et al., 2001), and has been used to study new neurons in the adult dentate gyrus (Jessberger and Kempermann, 2003).”
Using immediate-early genes to map hippocampal subregional functions. (2007, background): “Instead, the IEG activity observed in the hippocampus in hippocampus-independent tasks (Hess et al. 1995a,b; Guzowski et al. 2001; Kelly and Deadwyler 2002, 2003) supports the idea that hippocampus engages in continuous recording of ongoing experience (Morris and Frey 1997).”