To understand how different environmental conditions affect the neuronal epigenome, we use the isolation of hippocampal excitatory neuron's nuclei coupled with WGBS.

The relative contribution of genetic inheritance and environmental factors to adaptive behaviors is still debated. Social isolation and low socioeconomic status are major risk factors for adverse childhood experiences and have a direct impact on child brain development. Studies with juvenile mice exposed to EI show alterations in cognitive abilities and molecular changes in the hippocampus and other brain areas involved in memory formation. The opposite effects are observed when mice are exposed to EE. DNA methylation changes in neuronal plasticity genes is an attractive possible substrate for these changes. Although DNA methylation occurs predominantly at CpGs in the mammalian genome, neuronal cells show abundant methylation in non-CpGs regions, such as enhancers, which are regulated during postnatal development12. To understand how different environmental conditions affect the neuronal epigenome, we propose to use a mouse strain described above for the isolation of hippocampal excitatory neuron's nuclei. This will allow us to obtain high quality nuclear DNA from specific regions of the hippocampus to carry out low input WGBS methylation analysis.