RNAseq data from: Medial prefrontal cortex samples of glutamate dehydrogenase-deficient mice, stress-exposed or -naive, and their Nestin-Cre+ controls

Glutamate abnormalities in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are associated with cognitive deficits. We previously showed that homozygous deletion of CNS glutamate dehydrogenase 1 (Glud1), a metabolic enzyme critical for glutamate metabolism, leads to schizophrenia-like behavioral abnormalities and increased mPFC glutamate; mice heterozygous for CNS Glud1 deletion (C-Glud1+/- mice) showed no cognitive or molecular abnormalities. Here, we examined the protracted behavioral and molecular effects of mild injection stress on C-Glud1+/- mice. We found spatial and reversal learning deficits, as well as large-scale mPFC transcriptional changes in pathways associated with glutamate and GABA signaling, in stress-exposed C-Glud1+/- mice, but not in their stress-naïve or C-Glud1+/+ littermates. Interestingly, these effects were observed several weeks following stress exposure, and the expression levels of specific glutamatergic and GABAergic genes differentiated between high and low reversal lea..., RNA was extracted from 28 mPFC samples (n=5-9 per group, approximately equal numbers of males and females) as previously described20,90, and sent to the Technion Genome Center for genome-wide RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and bioinformatical analysis. The experiment was comprised of two batches; the first included samples from three of the four groups (C-Cre+/Control, C-Cre+/Stress and C-Glud1+/-/Stress), and the second included new samples from the three aforementioned groups, and added the forth group (C-Glud1+/-/Control). Findings from both batches were combined, taking into account batch and sex effects. RNA was prepared using the SMARTer Stranded Total RNA-Seq Kit v2 – Pico preparation kit according to the manufacturer’s instructions. RNA-seq library preparation, sequencing (using the Illumina HiSeq 2500 sequencer for first batch; Illumina NextSeq 550 for the second), and data analysis was performed by the Technion Genome Center. The quality of the libraries was evaluated using FASTQC (..., Application and version used: FASTQC (v 0.11.5)