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miR-132, an experience-dependent microRNA, is essential for visual cortex plasticity

Nature Neuroscience volume 14, pages 1240–1242 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Using quantitative analyses, we identified microRNAs (miRNAs) that were abundantly expressed in visual cortex and that responded to dark rearing and/or monocular deprivation. The most substantially altered miRNA, miR-132, was rapidly upregulated after eye opening and was delayed by dark rearing. In vivo inhibition of miR-132 in mice prevented ocular dominance plasticity in identified neurons following monocular deprivation and affected the maturation of dendritic spines, demonstrating its critical role in the plasticity of visual cortex circuits.

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Figure 1: Experience-dependent miRNAs in mouse visual cortex and detailed analysis of miR-132.
Figure 2: Structural and electrophysiological effects of miR-132 inhibition.
Figure 3: In vivo inhibition of miR-132 in V1 neurons disrupts their ocular dominance plasticity.

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Gene Expression Omnibus

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Sharma and C. Runyan for feedback, G. Kreiman for assistance with data analysis, M. Constantine-Paton and her laboratory for sharing equipment and B. Karki for technical assistance. Supported by US National Eye Institute Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellowship 1F32EY020066-01 (N.M.), Helmholtz Young Investigator program HZ-NG-607 (D.E.), a Simons Foundation postdoctoral fellowship (A.B.) and US National Institutes of Health EY017098 and EY007023 to M.S.

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Author notes

  1. Daniela Tropea

    Present address: Present address: Trinity College Dublin, St. James Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.,

  2. Nikolaos Mellios and Hiroki Sugihara: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Nikolaos Mellios, Hiroki Sugihara, Jorge Castro, Abhishek Banerjee, Chuong Le, Arooshi Kumar, Benjamin Crawford, Daniela Tropea & Mriganka Sur

  2. DZNE - German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Munich, Germany

    Julia Strathmann & Dieter Edbauer

  3. Biomicro Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Stuart S Levine

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  1. Nikolaos Mellios
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Contributions

N.M. conceived the hypothesis, designed and executed experiments, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript. H.S. conducted in vivo two-photon calcium imaging and analyzed the related data. J.C. conducted neonatal virus injections and structural analysis. A.B. carried out slice electrophysiology. A.B., C.L., A.K., B.C., J.C. and D.T. assisted in various experiments, data analysis and figure preparation. J.S. and D.E. constructed and tested lentivirus vectors and S.S.L. performed miRNA microarray experiments. M.S. supervised and orchestrated all of the experiments and wrote the manuscript with N.M.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mriganka Sur.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Figures 1–12, Tables 1–3, Methods and Discussion (PDF 3018 kb)

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Mellios, N., Sugihara, H., Castro, J. et al. miR-132, an experience-dependent microRNA, is essential for visual cortex plasticity. Nat Neurosci 14, 1240–1242 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2909

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