PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Xiang Li
AU  - Qiongyi Zhao
AU  - Wei Wei
AU  - Quan Lin
AU  - Christophe Magnan
AU  - Michael Emami
AU  - Luis E. Wearick da Silva
AU  - Thiago W. Viola
AU  - Paul Marshall
AU  - Jordan Edmunds
AU  - Sara Nainar
AU  - Cathrine Broberg Vågbø
AU  - Laura Leighton
AU  - Esmi Zajaczkowski
AU  - Ke Ke
AU  - Rodrigo Grassi-Oliveira
AU  - Magnar Bjørås
AU  - Pierre F. Baldi
AU  - Robert C. Spitale
AU  - Timothy W. Bredy
TI  - The formation of fear extinction memory requires the accumulation of N6-methyl-2’-deoxyadenosine in DNA
AID  - 10.1101/059972
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 059972
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/09/059972.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/09/059972.full
AB  - Here we report that the recently identified DNA modification N6-methyl-2’-deoxyadenosine (m6dA) is dynamically regulated in post-mitotic neurons and accumulates within promoters and genomic coding sequences of neurons activated by fear extinction learning in adult C57/Bl6 mice. The deposition of m6dA leads to an open chromatin state as well as the recruitment of the activating transcription factor Yin-Yang 1 and RNA polymerase II, which are critical for activity-induced brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene expression and required for the formation of fear extinction memory. These findings expand the scope of DNA modifications in the adult brain and highlight the discovery of DNA m6dA as novel neuroepigenetic mechanism associated with learning and memory.