Profiling the transcriptome of excitatory neuronal nuclei during pilocarpine-induced seizure

The initial seizure-induced events in neuronal nuclei can lead to long-term changes in gene expression and cellular responses that likely contribute toward epileptogenesis. Using a transgenic mouse model to specifically isolate excitatory neuronal nuclei, we profiled the seizure-induced nuclear transcriptome by RNA-seq, as well as proteome via tandem mass tag mass spectrometry (available at ProteomeXchange via PRIDE; Accession ID: PXD030637). In the transcriptome, we observed robust induction of genes involved in multiple processes, including MAPK signalling, and downregulation of zinc finger genes harbouring Krüppel-associated box (KRAB) domains, which were strongly enriched for binding sites of the Thap11/Ronin transcriptional repressor. Additionally, we characterised gene expression in introns, which provided further insights into seizure-driven transcriptional regulation and dynamics, including repression of transcription mediated by zinc finger transcription factors. Our results provide a detailed snapshot of nuclear events induced by seizure activity and demonstrate a robust method for cell-type-specific nuclear profiling that can be applied to other cell types and models. Gene expression in immunopurified mouse forebrain excitatory neuronal nuclei 100 min following injection with scopolamine + pilocarpine (Pilo) or scopolamine + saline (Mock) to induce acute seizures