Genome-Wide Temporal Expression Profiling in Caenorhabditis elegans Identifies a Core Gene Set Related to Long-Term Memory.

The identification of genes related to encoding, storage, and retrieval of memories is a major interest in neuroscience. In the current study, we analyzed the temporal gene expression changes in a neuronal mRNA pool during an olfactory long-term associative memory (LTAM) in Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodites. Here, we identified a core set of 712 (538 upregulated and 174 downregulated) genes that follows three distinct temporal peaks demonstrating multiple gene regulation waves in LTAM. Compared with the previously published positive LTAM gene set (Lakhina et al., 2015), 50% of the identified upregulated genes here overlap with the previous dataset, possibly representing stimulus-independent memory-related genes. On the other hand, the remaining genes were not previously identified in positive associative memory and may specifically regulate aversive LTAM. Our results suggest a multistep gene activation process during the formation and retrieval of long-term memory and define general memory-implicated genes as well as conditioning-type-dependent gene sets.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The identification of genes regulating different steps of memory is of major interest in neuroscience. Identification of common memory genes across different learning paradigms and the temporal activation of the genes are poorly studied. Here, we investigated the temporal aspects of Caenorhabditis elegans gene expression changes using aversive olfactory associative long-term memory (LTAM) and identified three major gene activation waves. Like in previous studies, aversive LTAM is also CREB dependent, and CREB activity is necessary immediately after training. Finally, we define a list of memory paradigm-independent core gene sets as well as conditioning-dependent genes.

Piwi-pathway alteration induces LINE-1 transposon derepression and infertility development in cryptorchidism.

Spermatogonia contain processing bodies that harbor P-element-induced wimpy testis (Piwi) proteins. Piwi proteins are associated specifically with Piwi-interacting RNAs to silence transposable DNA elements. Loss-of-function mutations in the Piwi pathway lead to derepression of transposable elements, resulting in defective spermatogenesis. Furthermore, deletion of gametocyte-specific factor 1 (GTSF1), a factor involved in Piwi-mediated transcriptional repression, causes male-specific sterility and derepression of LINE-1 (L1) retrotransposons. No previous studies have examined GTSF1, L1 and PIWIL4 expression in cryptorchidism. We examined transposon-silencing genes and L1 transposon expression in testicular biopsies with Affymetrix microarrays and immunohistology. Seven members of the Tudor gene family, 3 members of the DEAD-box RNA helicase family, and the GTSF1 gene were found to show significantly lower RNA signals in the high-infertility-risk group. In the immunohistochemical analysis, patients from the low-infertility-risk group showed coherently stronger staining for GTSF1 and PIWIL4 proteins and weaker staining for L1 transposon when compared to the high-infertility-risk samples. These new findings provide first evidence consistent with the idea that infertility in cryptorchidism is a consequence of alterations in the Piwi pathway and transposon derepression induced by the impaired function of mini-puberty.

Forgetting is regulated via Musashi-mediated translational control of the Arp2/3 complex.

A plastic nervous system requires the ability not only to acquire and store but also to forget. Here, we report that musashi (msi-1) is necessary for time-dependent memory loss in C. elegans. Tissue-specific rescue demonstrates that MSI-1 function is necessary in the AVA interneuron. Using RNA-binding protein immunoprecipitation (IP), we found that MSI-1 binds to mRNAs of three subunits of the Arp2/3 actin branching regulator complex in vivo and downregulates ARX-1, ARX-2, and ARX-3 translation upon associative learning. The role of msi-1 in forgetting is also reflected by the persistence of learning-induced GLR-1 synaptic size increase in msi-1 mutants. We demonstrate that memory length is regulated cooperatively through the activation of adducin (add-1) and by the inhibitory effect of msi-1. Thus, a GLR-1/MSI-1/Arp2/3 pathway induces forgetting and represents a novel mechanism of memory decay by linking translational control to the structure of the actin cytoskeleton in neurons.

PKCα is genetically linked to memory capacity in healthy subjects and to risk for posttraumatic stress disorder in genocide survivors.

Strong memory of a traumatic event is thought to contribute to the development and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therefore, a genetic predisposition to build strong memories could lead to increased risk for PTSD after a traumatic event. Here we show that genetic variability of the gene encoding PKCα (PRKCA) was associated with memory capacity--including aversive memory--in nontraumatized subjects of European descent. This finding was replicated in an independent sample of nontraumatized subjects, who additionally underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). fMRI analysis revealed PRKCA genotype-dependent brain activation differences during successful encoding of aversive information. Further, the identified genetic variant was also related to traumatic memory and to the risk for PTSD in heavily traumatized survivors of the Rwandan genocide. Our results indicate a role for PKCα in memory and suggest a genetic link between memory and the risk for PTSD.