PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Risako Nakano
AU  - Naoki Ihara
AU  - Shota Morikawa
AU  - Ai Nakashima
AU  - Masato T. Kanemaki
AU  - Yuji Ikegaya
AU  - Haruki Takeuchi
TI  - Auxin-mediated rapid degradation of selective proteins in hippocampal neurons
AID  - 10.1101/612119
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 612119
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/04/17/612119.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/04/17/612119.full
AB  - Genetic manipulation of protein levels is a promising approach to identify the function of a specific protein in living organisms. Previous studies demonstrated that the auxin-inducible degron (AID) strategy provides rapid and reversible degradation of various proteins in fungi and mammalian mitotic cells. In this study, we employed this technology to postmitotic neurons to address whether the AID system could be applied to the nervous system. Using adeno-associated viruses, we simultaneously introduced EGFP fused with an AID tag, and an F-box family protein, TIR1 from Oryza sativa (OsTIR1) into hippocampal neurons. In dissociated hippocampal neurons, EGFP fluorescence signals rapidly decreased when adding a plant hormone, auxin. Further, auxin-induced EGFP degradation was also observed in hippocampal acute slices. Taken together, these results open the door for neuroscientists to manipulate protein expression levels by the AID-system in a temporally-controlled manner.