Monoubiquitination of histone H2B is a crucial regulator of the transcriptome during memory formation

Abstract

Posttranslational modification of histone proteins is critical for memory formation. Recently, we showed that monoubiquitination of histone H2B at lysine 120 (H2Bub) is critical for memory formation in the hippocampus. However, the transcriptome controlled by H2Bub remains unknown. Here, we found that fear conditioning in male rats increased or decreased the expression of 86 genes in the hippocampus but, surprisingly, siRNA-mediated knockdown of the H2Bub ligase, Rnf20, abolished changes in all but one of these genes. These findings suggest that monoubiquitination of histone H2B is a crucial regulator of the transcriptome during memory formation.