title: Contextual fear conditioning regulates the expression of brain-specific small nucleolar RNAs in hippocampus.
abstract: Some small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are exclusively expressed in the brain but they have no known role in higher brain function. We analysed the expression pattern of four brain-specific snoRNAs: MBI-36, MBII-48, MBII-52 and MBII-85, in mouse brain using in situ hybridization. All of these genes were expressed in the hippocampus and, except for MBII-85, their levels in ventral parts were higher than those in dorsal parts. Using quantitative real-time polymer chain reaction we determined hippocampal expression changes after contextual fear conditioning in mice. Ninety minutes, but not 25 h, after conditioning, we observed significant downregulation of MBII-48 and upregulation of MBII-52. Our finding that the expression of MBII-48 and MBII-52 is regulated during learning suggests that these snoRNAs have an important role in higher brain function.
authors.affiliation: Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, University College London, UK.
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rogelj
authors.forename: Christoph E A
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.forename: Christopher H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Yeo
authors.forename: Stephen P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Hunt
authors.forename: K Peter
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Giese
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism*; D017403:In Situ Hybridization / Q000379:methods; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D020537:RNA, Small Nucleolar / Q000378:metabolism*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D020537:RNA, Small Nucleolar