SRA

The goal of this study was to characterize a novel Mecp2 allele in the laboratory rat, a distinct rodent species from the laboratory mouse with unique features. The allele was created by zinc finger-nuclease (ZFN) targeting (SAGE/Horizon) of the X-linked gene, Methyl-CpG-Binding Protein 2 (Mecp2), resulting in normal Mecp2 RNA abundance, but absent protein in male rats as expected due to the presence of only one copy of mutant Mecp2, and an approximate 50% reduction in female rats as expected from animals that harbor one wild-type copy and one mutant copy of Mecp2. Behavioral characterization of female rats with the Mecp2 ZFN allele and wild-type littermates was conducted, and Mecp2 ZFN/+ female rats showed behavioral phenotypes that were consistent with disease-like features present during the early stages of disease onset in the neurological disorder Rett syndrome. The goal of conducting RNAseq studies was to compare existing gene expression alterations in the Mecp2 rat with one of the most widely studied Mecp2 mouse model. Hypothalami were obtained from males with complete loss of MeCP2 (ZFN/y) and wild-type littermate male rats for RNA-seq studies. Common and unique gene expression alterations among the Mecp2 rodents that were then tested in human Rett and control postmortem brain revealed the benefit of combining findings from both models, suggesting the predictive validity of this approach for future studies for the identification of potential preclinical outcome measures. QPCR validation in an independent set of rats was conducted with a subset of genes from the Mecp2 ZFN rat RNA-seq data as an additional control measure. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that the Mecp2 rat model is a complementary tool with unique features for the study of RTT and highlight the potential benefit of cross-species analyses in identifying potential disease-relevant preclinical outcome measures. Overall design: Transcriptional profiles of hypothalamic samples obtained from male rats haboring a novel zinc-finger nuclease Mecp2 loss-of-function allele and corresponding wild-type littermate rats were generated using RNA-seq