TY - JOUR T1 - The formation of fear extinction memory requires the accumulation of N6-methyl-2’-deoxyadenosine in DNA JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/059972 SP - 059972 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 Y1 - 2017/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/09/059972.abstract N2 - 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. ER -