Specific and behaviorally consequential astrocyte G q GPCR signaling attenuation in vivo with iβARK

The Khakh laboratory used astrocyte selective AAVs expressing Rpl22-HA along with bARK for attenuating Gq pathway signaling in the dorsal striatum. In the control group, bARK(D110A), which is a mutated control of bARK was expressed instead of bARK. The mouse striatum expressing either bARK or bARK(D110A) was subjected to RNA-seq in order to compare striatal astrocyte transcriptomes with and without Gq-GPCR signaling attenuation. Whole striata were extracted from 4 adult (9 weeks old) C57BL/6J wild-type male mice with bARK or bARK(D110A) expression in astrocytes in vivo. After homogenization, RNA was purified from (i) cleared lysate as the input and control, and (ii) astrocyte-specific ribosome-associated RNA precipitated via a hemagglutinin (HA) tag.