Glutamate-induced transcriptional changes in embryonic mouse cortical neurons [GRO-seq]

Glutamate is a major excitatory neurotransmitter in the nervous system. Increased and persistent release of glutamate is toxic to neurons and this excitotoxicity is a hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we use GRO-seq to screen for the acute transcriptional changes induced by glutamate exposure on embryonic mouse cortical neurons to reveal downstream molecules which could participate in glutamate-induced toxicity. We show that several miRNA genes, such as miR-21, have altered expression upon glutamate exposure. Overall design: Primary cortical neurons from C57Bl/6J mouse embryos (E15) were cultured in vitro for 7 days and treated with 400 µM glutamate or vehicle for 6 hours before nuclei extraction. Experiment contained two biological replicates for both treatment groups.