Abstract
Early life stress (ELS) has been shown to have a significant impact on typical brain development and the manifestation of psychological disorders through epigenetic modifications that alter gene expression. Line1, a retrotransposon associated with genetic diversity, has been linked with various psychological disorders that are associated with ELS. Our previous work demonstrated altered Line1 DNA copy number in the neonatal period following stressful experiences; we therefore chose to investigate whether early life stress altered Line1 retrotransposition persists into the juvenile period of development. Our study uses a neonatal predator odor exposure (POE) paradigm to model ELS in rats. We examined Line1 using qPCR to assess Line1 expression levels and DNA copy number in the male and female juvenile amygdala, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex—areas chosen for their association with affective disorders and stress. We report a sex difference in Line1 levels within the juvenile amygdala. We also find that ELS significantly increases Line1 DNA copy number within the juvenile amygdala which correlates with reduced juvenile social play levels, suggesting the possibility that Line1 may influence juvenile social development.
Highlights
Life stress (ELS) has been shown to have a significant impact on typical brain development and the manifestation of psychological disorders through epigenetic modifications that alter gene expression
We found a significant effect of stress, wherein animals that experienced early life stress played at lower levels than control animals (p = 0.017) (Fig. 1)
Our previous findings indicated that early life stress resulted in increased Line[1] DNA copy number in the male hippocampus within a few days following stress[13]; our current data suggests that these immediate stress-induced changes were no longer detected within the juvenile hippocampus
Summary
Life stress (ELS) has been shown to have a significant impact on typical brain development and the manifestation of psychological disorders through epigenetic modifications that alter gene expression. Once integrated into the genome, the new Line[1] insertion has the potential to disrupt or alter gene expression Incorporation of both open reading frames appear necessary for newly integrated Line[1] elements to have the capacity to be retrotranspositionally active;’ the majority of Line[1] retrotransposons insertions are 5′ truncated and retrotranspositionally inactive[15,19]. Still, truncated Line[1] genomic insertions can alter our Scientific Reports | (2021) 11:3549
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