The dosage of the neuroD2 transcription factor regulates amygdala developmentand emotional learning
Lin CH, Hansen S, Wang Z, Storm DR, Tapscott SJ, Olson JM.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Oct 11;102(41):14877-82. Epub 2005 Oct 3.
Division of Clinical Research, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, USA.
The amygdala is centrally involved in formation of emotional memory and response to fear or risk. We have demonstrated that the lateral and basolateral amygdale nuclei fail to form in neuroD2 null mice and neuroD2 heterozygotes have fewer neurons in this region.
NeuroD2 heterozygous mice show profound deficits in emotional learning as assessed by fear conditioning. Unconditioned fear was also diminished in neuroD2 heterozygotes compared to wild-type controls.
Several key molecular regulators of emotional learning were diminished in the brains of neuroD2 heterozygotes including Ulip1, alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptor, and GABA receptor.
Thus, neuroD2 is essential for amygdala development and genes involved in amygdala function are altered in neuroD2-deficient mice.