Monoubiquitination of histone H2B is a master regulator of the transcriptome during memory formation

We report a vital role for H2Bubi in active and repressive gene transcription during long-term memory formation. We found that fear conditioning increased or decreased the expression of 86 genes in the hippocampus one hour after training. Remarkably, siRNA knockdown of the H2Bubi ligase, Rnf20, abolished changes in all but one of these genes, Per1, suggesting a critical role for the H2Bubi epigenetic mark in active and repressive gene transcription during memory consolidation.本研究揭示了H2B泛素化（H2Bubi）在长时记忆形成过程中，于基因转录激活与抑制进程中所发挥的关键作用。研究发现，恐惧条件反射训练后1小时，海马体中共有86个基因的表达量出现上调或下调。值得注意的是，通过小干扰RNA（siRNA）介导敲低H2B泛素化连接酶Rnf20后，除Per1基因外，其余所有受调控基因的表达变化均被消除，这表明H2B泛素化这一表观遗传标记在记忆巩固过程中的基因转录激活与抑制环节中扮演着至关重要的角色。