Transcriptome analysis of a MECP2 conditional KO mouse model

Rett syndrome is a severe neurodevelopmental condition that rsults primarily from mutations in the MECP2 gene. MECP2 is known to function as both a transcriptional activator and transcriptional repressor. However, it remains unclear how transcriptional dysregulation resulting from MECP2 mutations lead to the Rett syndrome phenotype. Multiple mouse models have been generated to investigate the function of MECP2 in vivo. Remarkably, despite the neurodevelopmental phenotype characteristic of Rett syndrome, temporal conditional MECP2 knock-out mouse models with MECP2 deletion induced postnatally recapitulate the Rett-syndrome-like phenotype in mouse. Here we investigated gene expression changes in 22-weeks old mice following conditional MECP knock-out at 12 weeks by RNA-sequencing. Consistent with previous data, we identify mild gene expression changes following MECP2 knock-out. These data could prove valuable in future studies comparing conditional MECP2 knock-out at distinct time points and in additional brain regions, and can also serve for investigating alternative splicing changes resulting from MECP2 conditional deletion. RNA-samples from the cerebellum (CB ) and cerebral cortex (CTX) of 4 wild-type and 4 conditional MECP2-KO mice were analysed by RNA-seq.