Targeted intron retention and excision for rapid gene regulation in response to neuronal activity

A substantial population of intron retentions are stably maintained in poly-adenylated transcripts and a subset of them are excised upon neuronal stimulation. These regulated intron retention events in fully transcribed RNAs represent a mechanism to rapidly mobilize a pool of mRNAs in response to neuronal activity. Overall design: Examination of intron retention events in the mouse neocortex and their regulation upon neuronal activity. We first identified intron retention events in the mouse neocortex from developing brain (post-natal day 10, P10) and adult brain (P49) as well as in primary neocortical cultures. We then assessed the stability of the retained introns by looking how evolve their retention levels two hours after DRB-mediated transcription inhibition (primary culture samples). Finally, we investigated whether some intron retention events are regulated by neuronal activity. For that, we analysed in a transcription-inhibited context (mediated by DRB), levels of intron retention in primary neocortical cultures treated with bicuculline to increase the overall network activity.