Publisher Correction: Sensory experience remodels genome architecture in neural circuit to drive motor learning.

In this Letter, '≥' should be '≤' in the sentence: "Intra-chromosomal reads were further split into short-range reads (≥1 kb) and long-range reads (>1 kb)". This error has been corrected online.An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Sensory experience remodels genome architecture in neural circuit to drive motor learning.

Neuronal-activity-dependent transcription couples sensory experience to adaptive responses of the brain including learning and memory. Mechanisms of activity-dependent gene expression including alterations of the epigenome have been characterized1-8. However, the fundamental question of whether sensory experience remodels chromatin architecture in the adult brain in vivo to induce neural code transformations and learning and memory remains to be addressed. Here we use in vivo calcium imaging, optogenetics and pharmacological approaches to show that granule neuron activation in the anterior dorsal cerebellar vermis has a crucial role in a delay tactile startle learning paradigm in mice. Of note, using large-scale transcriptome and chromatin profiling, we show that activation of the motor-learning-linked granule neuron circuit reorganizes neuronal chromatin including through long-distance enhancer-promoter and transcriptionally active compartment interactions to orchestrate distinct granule neuron gene expression modules. Conditional CRISPR knockout of the chromatin architecture regulator cohesin in anterior dorsal cerebellar vermis granule neurons in adult mice disrupts enhancer-promoter interactions, activity-dependent transcription and motor learning. These findings define how sensory experience patterns chromatin architecture and neural circuit coding in the brain to drive motor learning.

Chromatin remodeling inactivates activity genes and regulates neural coding.

Activity-dependent transcription influences neuronal connectivity, but the roles and mechanisms of inactivation of activity-dependent genes have remained poorly understood. Genome-wide analyses in the mouse cerebellum revealed that the nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase (NuRD) complex deposits the histone variant H2A.z at promoters of activity-dependent genes, thereby triggering their inactivation. Purification of translating messenger RNAs from synchronously developing granule neurons (Sync-TRAP) showed that conditional knockout of the core NuRD subunit Chd4 impairs inactivation of activity-dependent genes when neurons undergo dendrite pruning. Chd4 knockout or expression of NuRD-regulated activity genes impairs dendrite pruning. Imaging of behaving mice revealed hyperresponsivity of granule neurons to sensorimotor stimuli upon Chd4 knockout. Our findings define an epigenetic mechanism that inactivates activity-dependent transcription and regulates dendrite patterning and sensorimotor encoding in the brain.