title: Thy1.2 driven expression of transgenic His₆-SUMO2 in the brain of mice alters a restricted set of genes.
abstract: Protein SUMOylation is a post-translational protein modification with a key regulatory role in nerve cell development and function, but its function in mammals in vivo has only been studied cursorily. We generated two new transgenic mouse lines that express His6-tagged SUMO1 and SUMO2 driven by the Thy1.2 promoter. The brains of mice of the two lines express transgenic His6-SUMO peptides and conjugate them to substrates in vivo but cytoarchitecture and synaptic organization of adult transgenic mouse brains are indistinguishable from the wild-type situation. We investigated the impact of transgenic SUMO expression on gene transcription in the hippocampus by performing genome wide analyses using microarrays. Surprisingly, no changes were observed in Thy1.2::His6-SUMO1 transgenic mice and only a restricted set of genes were upregulated in Thy1.2::His6-SUMO2 mice. Among these, Penk1 (Preproenkephalin 1), which encodes Met-enkephalin neuropeptides, showed the highest degree of alteration. Accordingly, a significant increase in Met-enkephalin peptide levels in the hippocampus of Thy1.2::His6-SUMO2 was detected, but the expression levels and cellular localization of Met-enkephalin receptors were not changed. Thus, transgenic neuronal expression of His6-SUMO1 or His6-SUMO2 only induces very minor phenotypical changes in mice.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Research Group Gene Expression, Hermann-Rein-Straße 3, 37075 Göttingen, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Laboratory of Molecular and Behavioral Neurobiology, Nussbaumstr. 7, 80336 München, Germany.
authors.forename: Moritz J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Rossner
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Department of Molecular Neurobiology, Hermann-Rein-Straße 3, 37075 Göttingen, Germany. Electronic address: tirard@em.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Marilyn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tirard
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D004744:Enkephalin, Methionine / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D025842:SUMO-1 Protein / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D025841:Small Ubiquitin-Related Modifier Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D058207:Sumoylation; D018800:Thy-1 Antigens / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D025842:SUMO-1 Protein; C515972:SUMO2 protein, mouse; D025841:Small Ubiquitin-Related Modifier Proteins; D018800:Thy-1 Antigens; D004744:Enkephalin, Methionine
keywords: Affinity tag; Gene array; Penk1; SUMOylation; Transgenic mice