Question

Your neurobiology lab primarily studies gene expression of distinct brain regions to better understand mechanisms behind memory loss. Your task as a new graduate student is to create libraries of Olfactory Bulb and Hippocampus rat brain regions. How would gene expression differences in anatomically distinct brain regions in “control” rats help you identify candidate genes possibly involved in loss of memory phenotype?

Answer 1

Hippocampus is a region of the brain essential to memory processing. This is regulated by a gene which causes the production of a protein that is blocked in rats with memory loss. That is "Crtc1"(CREB regulated transcription coactivation-1). It is important for memory.

So to identify this protein the gene expression in hippocampus of healthy control rats compared with the rat that developed the disease.

The set of genes involved in memory consolidation coincided with the genes regulating crtc1. The alteration of this genes could cause memory loss. When crtc1 protein is prevented from functioning correctly or when it is altered the genes responsible for synapsis or connections between neurons in hippocampus cannot be activated and they have memory loss. So the gene expression of the healthy and diseased rats can be identified by crct1 protein and the genes involved in regulating this protein.