Impaired long-term stability of CA1 place cell representation in mice lacking the transcription factor zif268/egr1.
Zif268 is a transcriptional regulator that plays a crucial role in maintenance of the late phases of hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) and consolidation of spatial memories. Because the hippocampal place cell system is essential for long-term spatial memory, we tested the hypothesis that zif268 is required for long-term stability of hippocampal place cell representations by recording CA1 place cells in mice lacking zif268. We found that zif268 gene deletion destabilized the representation of a familiar environment after exposure to a novel environment and impaired the long-term (24 h), but not short-term (1 h), stability of newly formed representations. These impairments could be rescued by repeated exposure to the novel environment, however. These results indicate that zif268 contributes to the long-term stability of spatial representations in CA1 and support the notion that the long-term stability of place cell representations requires transcription-dependent mechanisms similar to those observed in LTP.
Renaudineau
Sophie
S
Laboratoire de Neurobiologie de la Cognition, Unité Mixte de Recherche 6155, Aix-Marseille Université, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 13331 Marseille, France.
Poucet
Bruno
B
Laroche
Serge
S
Davis
Sabrina
S
Save
Etienne
E
D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D051766:Early Growth Response Protein 1 / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000235:genetics; D017353:Gene Deletion; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000235:genetics; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors
D051766:Early Growth Response Protein 1; C486109:Egr1 protein, mouse