Gene expression analysis of serotonin transporter knock-out and wildtype rats during rat postnatal prefrontal cortex development

To unravel the effect of increased extracellular serotonin levels on brain development, RNA-seq was performed in the medial prefrontal cortex of serotonin transporter knockout and wildtype rats at five time points from early life to adulthood (postnatal day (PND) 8, 14, 21, 35 and 70). Differential expression of protein-coding genes was analyzed and we demonstrate that a lack of functional 5-HTT especially affects gene expression in early postnatal life (PND8).为阐明细胞外5-羟色胺水平升高对大脑发育的影响，本研究对5-羟色胺转运蛋白敲除（serotonin transporter knockout, 5-HTT）与野生型大鼠的内侧前额叶皮层（medial prefrontal cortex）样本，在从幼年早期至成年的五个时间节点（出生后第8、14、21、35及70天（postnatal day, PND））开展了RNA测序（RNA-seq）。本研究对蛋白编码基因的差异表达情况进行了分析，结果证实，功能性5-HTT缺失尤其会对出生后早期（PND8）的基因表达产生显著影响。