Deletion of the KH1 domain coding sequence of Fmr1 leads to transcriptional alterations and attentional deficits in rats

We found that the previously published Fmr1 knockout rat model of FXS expresses an Fmr1 transcript with an in-frame deletion of exon 8, which encodes for the K-homology (KH) RNA-binding domain, KH1. We observed that the deletion of exon 8 in 10 male rats within the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) led to transcriptional alterations compared to 12 WT rats using RNAseq. Additionally, we used weighted gene co-expression network analysis to generate 23 modules specific to the mPFC with tissue from 35 WT rat samples. Overall design: RNAseq using WT and Fmr1 delta exon 8 mPFC samples