RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Gene Expression in the Brain across the Hibernation Cycle
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 3781
OP 3790
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.19-10-03781.1999
VO 19
IS 10
A1 Bruce F. O’Hara
A1 Fiona L. Watson
A1 Hilary K. Srere
A1 Himanshu Kumar
A1 Steven W. Wiler
A1 Susan K. Welch
A1 Louise Bitting
A1 H. Craig Heller
A1 Thomas S. Kilduff
YR 1999
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/19/10/3781.abstract
AB The purpose of this study was to characterize changes in gene expression in the brain of a seasonal hibernator, the golden-mantled ground squirrel, Spermophilus lateralis, during the hibernation season. Very little information is available on molecular changes that correlate with hibernation state, and what has been done focused mainly on seasonal changes in peripheral tissues. We produced over 4000 reverse transcription-PCR products from euthermic and hibernating brain and compared them using differential display. Twenty-nine of the most promising were examined by Northern analysis. Although some small differences were observed across hibernation states, none of the 29 had significant changes. However, a more direct approach, investigating expression of putative hibernation-responsive genes by Northern analysis, revealed an increase in expression of transcription factors c-fos, junB, and c-Jun, but not junD, commencing during late torpor and peaking during the arousal phase of individual hibernation bouts. In contrast, prostaglandin D2 synthase declined during late torpor and arousal but returned to a high level on return to euthermia. Other genes that have putative roles in mammalian sleep or specific brain functions, including somatostatin, enkephalin, growth-associated protein 43, glutamate acid decarboxylases 65/67, histidine decarboxylase, and a sleep-related transcript SD464 did not change significantly during individual hibernation bouts. We also observed no decline in total RNA or total mRNA during torpor; such a decline had been previously hypothesized. Therefore, it appears that the dramatic changes in body temperature and other physiological variables that accompany hibernation involve only modest reprogramming of gene expression or steady-state mRNA levels.