Neurological defects in CAIX knockout mice

To further identify transcriptomic responses to CAIX deficiency in the brain, genome-wide cDNA microarray analyses were performed. Thirty-one and 37 genes were up- and down-regulated in the brain of Car9-/- mice as compared to wild-type mice. Functional annotation revealed that genes with increased expression are mainly involved in alternative splicing, nucleotide binding, RNA binding, and regulation of cellular protein metabolic process; whereas genes with reduced expression are chiefly implicated in cellular cation homeostasis, positive regulation of ion transport, Ubl conjugation, phosphorus metabolic process, and regulation of cell proliferation. Notably, the biological processes behaviour and locomotory behaviour are two prominent over-representation terms among the down-regulated genes, which is consistent with the results obtained from behavioural tests. Brain tissue samples were collected from five wild-type and four CAIX KO mice, respectively, at the age of eight months. Total RNAs were purified and used for cDNA microarray.