RESUMO
The ability to form memories is a prerequisite for an organism's behavioral adaptation to environmental changes. At the molecular level, the acquisition and maintenance of memory requires changes in chromatin modifications. In an effort to unravel the epigenetic network underlying both short- and long-term memory, we examined chromatin modification changes in two distinct mouse brain regions, two cell types and three time points before and after contextual learning. We found that histone modifications predominantly changed during memory acquisition and correlated surprisingly little with changes in gene expression. Although long-lasting changes were almost exclusive to neurons, learning-related histone modification and DNA methylation changes also occurred in non-neuronal cell types, suggesting a functional role for non-neuronal cells in epigenetic learning. Finally, our data provide evidence for a molecular framework of memory acquisition and maintenance, wherein DNA methylation could alter the expression and splicing of genes involved in functional plasticity and synaptic wiring.
Assuntos
Comportamento Animal/fisiologia , Região CA1 Hipocampal/metabolismo , Cromatina/química , Metilação de DNA/fisiologia , Epigênese Genética/fisiologia , Expressão Gênica/fisiologia , Giro do Cíngulo/metabolismo , Histonas/metabolismo , Memória de Longo Prazo/fisiologia , Memória de Curto Prazo/fisiologia , Plasticidade Neuronal/fisiologia , Animais , Condicionamento Psicológico , Metilação de DNA/genética , Epigênese Genética/genética , Medo , Expressão Gênica/genética , Masculino , Camundongos , Camundongos Endogâmicos C57BL , Plasticidade Neuronal/genéticaRESUMO
UNLABELLED: Oasis is a web application that allows for the fast and flexible online analysis of small-RNA-seq (sRNA-seq) data. It was designed for the end user in the lab, providing an easy-to-use web frontend including video tutorials, demo data and best practice step-by-step guidelines on how to analyze sRNA-seq data. Oasis' exclusive selling points are a differential expression module that allows for the multivariate analysis of samples, a classification module for robust biomarker detection and an advanced programming interface that supports the batch submission of jobs. Both modules include the analysis of novel miRNAs, miRNA targets and functional analyses including GO and pathway enrichment. Oasis generates downloadable interactive web reports for easy visualization, exploration and analysis of data on a local system. Finally, Oasis' modular workflow enables for the rapid (re-) analysis of data. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Oasis is implemented in Python, R, Java, PHP, C++ and JavaScript. It is freely available at http://oasis.dzne.de. CONTACT: stefan.bonn@dzne.de SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.