title: Heterozygous Che-1 KO mice show deficiencies in object recognition memory persistence.
abstract: Transcriptional regulation is a key process in the formation of long-term memories. Che-1 is a protein involved in the regulation of gene transcription that has recently been proved to bind the transcription factor NF-κB, which is known to be involved in many memory-related molecular events. This evidence prompted us to investigate the putative role of Che-1 in memory processes. For this study we newly generated a line of Che-1(+/-) heterozygous mice. Che-1 homozygous KO mouse is lethal during development, but Che-1(+/-) heterozygous mouse is normal in its general anatomical and physiological characteristics. We analyzed the behavioral characteristic and memory performance of Che-1(+/-) mice in two NF-κB dependent types of memory. We found that Che-1(+/-) mice show similar locomotor activity and thigmotactic behavior than wild type (WT) mice in an open field. In a similar way, no differences were found in anxiety-like behavior between Che-1(+/-) and WT mice in an elevated plus maze as well as in fear response in a contextual fear conditioning (CFC) and object exploration in a novel object recognition (NOR) task. No differences were found between WT and Che-1(+/-) mice performance in CFC training and when tested at 24h or 7days after training. Similar performance was found between groups in NOR task, both in training and 24h testing performance. However, we found that object recognition memory persistence at 7days was impaired in Che-1(+/-) heterozygous mice. This is the first evidence showing that Che-1 is involved in memory processes.
authors: Laboratorio de Neurobiología de la Memoria, Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE, UBA-CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors: Gisela
authors: G
authors: Zalcman
authors: CNR-IBPM, Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
authors: Nicoletta
authors: N
authors: Corbi
authors: CNR-Institute of Cell Biology and Neurobiology CNR, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.
authors: Maria Grazia
authors: MG
authors: Di Certo
authors: CNR-Institute of Cell Biology and Neurobiology CNR, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.
authors: Elisabetta
authors: E
authors: Mattei
authors: Laboratorio de Neurobiología de la Memoria, Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE, UBA-CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors: Noel
authors: N
authors: Federman
authors: Laboratorio de Neurobiología de la Memoria, Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE, UBA-CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina. Electronic address: aromano@fbmc.fcen.uba.ar.
authors: Arturo
authors: A
authors: Romano
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000235:genetics; D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D006579:Heterozygote; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000235:genetics; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins
keywords: Che-1; Fear conditioning; Gene transcription; Long-term memory; Memory persistence; Mouse; Novel object recognition