A single mutation in a gene, Kcnc3, which encodes a potassium channel in neurons, causes learning deficits in mice, UT Southwestern researchers report in a new study in PNAS. The novel mutation decreases the activity of neurons in the hippocampus, the area of the brain important for learning and memory, and highlights a new role for potassium channels.
“Learning and memory are very complex at the genetic level. Unbiased searches for genes underlying learning and memory have not been successfully conducted in mice before,” said Joseph Takahashi, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Neuroscience at UT Southwestern and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
The discovery of the Kcnc3 mutation came out of an extraordinary effort by Dr. Takahashi and colleagues to conduct a large-scale mutagenesis screen in mice. Using a highly potent mutagen called ENU, the researchers induced random…
