title: Post-training activation of Rac1 in the basolateral amygdala is required for the formation of both short-term and long-term auditory fear memory.
abstract: Rac1, a member of the Rho family of small GTPases, is crucial for morphological changes of the mature neuronal synapse including spine formation and activity-dependent spine enlargement, while its role in the formation of associated memories, such as conditioned fear memory, is not clear. Here, we report that selective deletion of Rac1 in excitatory neurons, but not in parvalbumin inhibitory neurons, impaired short- and long-term memories (STM and LTM) of fear conditioning. Conditional knockout of Rac1 before associative fear training in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), a key area for fear memory acquisition and storage, impaired fear memory. The expression of dominant-negative mutant of Rac1, or infusion of Rac1 inhibitor NSC23766 into BLA blocked both STM and LTM of fear conditioning. Furthermore, selective inhibition of Rac1 activation in BLA immediately following fear conditioning impaired STM and LTM, demonstrating that fear conditioning-induced Rac1 activation in BLA plays a critical role in the formation of both STM and LTM of conditioned fear.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Qinqin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Wenqing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Junjun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Cao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yezheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yuejun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ma
keywords: BLA; LTM; Rac1; STM; fear conditioning; memory formation