Stress and resilience articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sex differences in placental O-linked N-acetylglucosamine transferase (OGT) activity mediate the effects of prenatal stress on neurodevelopmental programming. Here authors provide evidence that OGT confers variation in vulnerability to prenatal insults by establishing sex-specific trophoblast gene expression via regulation of H3K27me3.

    • Bridget M. Nugent
    • , Carly M. O’Donnell
    •  & Tracy L. Bale

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Early childhood deprivation such as institutionalization can greatly affect early development. Here, the authors study children who were raised in institutions but later randomly placed in foster care vs. not, to understand how early-life deprivation affects associative learning in adolescence.

    • Margaret A. Sheridan
    • , Katie A. McLaughlin
    •  & Charles A. Nelson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Anorexia nervosa is characterised by self-starvation but its etiology is not completely understood. Here the authors describe how prenatal stress can induce activity-based anorexia in the offspring during early adulthood by upregulating miR-340 expression in the placenta that affects expression of nutrient transporters.

    • Mariana Schroeder
    • , Mira Jakovcevski
    •  & Alon Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stress resilience is accompanied by broad changes in gene expression. This study shows that estrogen receptor α (ERα) is a key upstream regulator of these changes in the nucleus accumbens, and that overexpression of ERα increases behavioral resilience via a sex-specific transcriptional mechanism.

    • Zachary S. Lorsch
    • , Yong-Hwee Eddie Loh
    •  & Eric J. Nestler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stress is recognized as risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes. Here Balsevich et al. show that the stress responsive co-chaperone FKBP5 regulates glucose metabolism in mice by modulating AS160 phosphorylation, glucose transporter expression and muscle glucose uptake.

    • Georgia Balsevich
    • , Alexander S. Häusl
    •  & Mathias V. Schmidt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Features of major depressive disorder including lack of motivation, sleep disruption and cognitive deficit have been modelled in rodents. Here, the authors develop a new method to elicit a depression-like state inDrosophila, and uncover separable roles for different serotonin receptors in depression-like behaviour.

    • Ariane-Saskia Ries
    • , Tim Hermanns
    •  & Roland Strauss

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mutation of the human genePHF8, encoding a histone demethylase, is linked to cognitive defects but its role in development is unclear. Here, the authors show that Phf8deletion in mice causes no overt developmental defects but confers resilience to depression, likely through increased serotonin signalling.

    • Ryan M. Walsh
    • , Erica Y. Shen
    •  & Konrad Hochedlinger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How neurons and neuronal activity regulate astrocyte functions is poorly understood. Haselet al. identify two large groups of astrocytic genes that are regulated by neuronal contact and synaptic activity respectively, with distinct roles in astrocytic function; interestingly, many of these genes are dysregulated in neurodegeneration.

    • Philip Hasel
    • , Owen Dando
    •  & Giles E. Hardingham

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding inter-individual differences in stress-susceptibility could lead to novel treatments and preventative strategies for stress-related pathologies. Here the authors provide evidence that increased endocannabinoid signalling is a resilience factor that buffers against adverse consequences of stress.

    • Rebecca J. Bluett
    • , Rita Báldi
    •  & Sachin Patel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Innate animal behaviours can be negatively regulated by environmental stressors. Jee et al. show that suppression of male C. eleganscopulation behaviour by noxious light can be overcome by activation of SEB-3, a homologue of the stress-associated mammalian corticotropin-releasing factor receptor family.

    • Changhoon Jee
    • , Jimmy F. Goncalves
    •  & L. Rene Garcia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Animals exhibit a number of complex behaviours following stressful events, although the underlying circuitry is undetermined. Here, the authors use optogenetic targeting to identify a role for corticotrophin releasing hormone cells in the paraventricular nucleus in regulating such behavioural responses to acute stress.

    • Tamás Füzesi
    • , Nuria Daviu
    •  & Jaideep S. Bains

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Potassium channels in the ventral tegmental area are known to regulate resilience against stress-induced depression. Here, the authors show over expression of KCNQ3 channels in VTA dopaminergic neurons or treatment with KCNQ channel openers normalizes depressive behaviours in mouse models.

    • Allyson K. Friedman
    • , Barbara Juarez
    •  & Ming-Hu Han

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Acute stress has broad physiological and behavioural consequences, yet the precise factors that generate stress responses are not known. Here, de Berker and colleagues demonstrate that acute stress responses dynamically track environmental uncertainty and predict ability to learn under uncertain threat.

    • Archy O. de Berker
    • , Robb B. Rutledge
    •  & Sven Bestmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exposure to childhood trauma is a major risk factor for the development of almost all psychiatric disorders. By epigenome-wide studies, here, Houtepen et al. show that DNA methylation at a locus in the Kit ligand gene (KITLG) mediates the relationship between childhood trauma and cortisol stress reactivity.

    • Lotte C. Houtepen
    • , Christiaan H. Vinkers
    •  & Marco P. M. Boks

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Adverse life events have been associated with reduced survival in cancer patients. Here, the authors explore the mechanism responsible and show that chronic stress in mice activates a signalling cascade in macrophages and tumour cells, which results in restructuring of the tumour lymphatic system, promoting metastasis.

    • Caroline P. Le
    • , Cameron J. Nowell
    •  & Erica K. Sloan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is involved in the response to stress but whether it exerts a positive or negative effect remains unclear. Here the authors ablate hippocampal neurogenesis in mice and find that the effects on anxiety behaviour depend on the time of day, and that neurogenesis specifically impairs the response to stress during the dark cycle.

    • Cheng-Yu Tsai
    • , Ching-Yen Tsai
    •  & Guo-Jen Huang

  • Article |

    There is growing evidence that the intestinal microbiota can affect host behaviour. Here, De Palma et al. show in mice that early-life stress (maternal separation) induces changes in host physiology that alter the gut microbiota, which then triggers anxiety-like and depression-like behaviour later in life.

    • G. De Palma
    • , P. Blennerhassett
    •  & P. Bercik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Current multiple sclerosis treatments focus on prevention of immune attack on oligodendrocytes and myelin. Here the authors show a different strategy to ameliorate disease in several mouse models, protecting oligodendrocytes from inflammation-induced death with an FDA-approved drug, guanabenz.

    • Sharon W. Way
    • , Joseph R. Podojil
    •  & Brian Popko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis coordinates behavioral and physiological responses to stress but the mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, the authors show that neurons that produce hypocretin/orexin in the lateral hypothalamic area regulate corticosterone release and a variety of behaviors related to the stress response.

    • Patricia Bonnavion
    • , Alexander C. Jackson
    •  & Luis de Lecea

  • Article |

    Traumatic events in one generation can affect the behaviour of their offspring. Here the authors subject male mouse pups to traumatic stress and find that their offspring display improved goal-directed behaviours associated with epigenetic changes of the mineralocorticoid receptor gene.

    • Katharina Gapp
    • , Saray Soldado-Magraner
    •  & Isabelle M. Mansuy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A role for cell adhesion molecules like nectin-3 in the mechanisms that underlie the behavioural effects of stress have been previously described. Here the authors show that the metalloproteinase matrix metalloproteinase-9 is involved in proteolysis of nectin-3 and in mediating stress induced behavioural effects in rats.

    • Michael A. van der Kooij
    • , Martina Fantin
    •  & Carmen Sandi

  • Article |

    The health benefits of massage therapy, like the reduction of stress, have so far only been shown in humans. This study uses modelling to demonstrate that, while visiting cleaner fish to have ectoparasites removed, the physical stimulation also acts to reduce stress in the coral reef fish,Ctenochaetus striatus.

    • Marta C. Soares
    • , Rui F. Oliveira
    •  & Redouan Bshary

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