Disrupting the hippocampal Piwi pathway enhances contextual fear memory in mice.
The Piwi pathway is a conserved gene regulatory mechanism comprised of Piwi-like proteins and Piwi-interacting RNAs, which modulates gene expression via RNA interference and through interaction with epigenetic mechanisms. The mammalian Piwi pathway has been defined by its role in transposon control during spermatogenesis; however, despite an increasing number of studies demonstrating its expression in the nervous system, relatively little is known about its function in neurons or potential contribution to behavioural regulation. We have discovered that all three Piwi-like genes are expressed in the adult mouse brain, and that viral-mediated knockdown of the Piwi-like genes Piwil1 and Piwil2 in the dorsal hippocampus leads to enhanced contextual fear memory without affecting generalised anxiety. These results implicate the Piwi pathway in behavioural regulation in the adult mammalian brain, likely through modulation of plasticity-related gene expression.
['Leighton|Laura J|LJ|', 'Wei|Wei|W|', 'Marshall|Paul R|PR|', 'Ratnu|Vikram Singh|VS|', 'Li|Xiang|X|', 'Zajaczkowski|Esmi L|EL|', 'Spadaro|Paola A|PA|', 'Khandelwal|Nitin|N|', 'Kumar|Arvind|A|', 'Bredy|Timothy W|TW|']
D000818:Animals D001007:Anxiety D060565:Argonaute Proteins D001522:Behavior, Animal D018929:Cell Culture Techniques D003216:Conditioning, Operant D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic D005239:Fear D015870:Gene Expression D006624:Hippocampus D008297:Male D018782:Maze Learning D008568:Memory D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways D051379:Mice D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL D008822:Mice, Transgenic D011595:Psychomotor Agitation D034741:RNA, Small Interfering
Memory Epigenetics Learning Molecular biology Noncoding RNA Plasticity