Fig. 2: Circuit-specific silencing of FosB gene in ventral hippocampal projection neurons.
From: Circuit-specific hippocampal ΔFosB underlies resilience to stress-induced social avoidance
a Schematic of dual-vector CRISPR tool to silence FosB in vHPC-NAc afferent neurons. Retrograde vector expressing Cre-dependent Cas9 (Cas9; red) is injected into NAc while local vector expressing Cre and FosB guide RNA (gRNA; green) is injected into vHPC. FosB silencing (FosB KO) occurs only in co-transduced vHPC-NAc neurons. b FosB silencing in vHPC-NAc neurons heightens stress-induced social avoidance. **P = 0.0092 (n = 6 control, n = 9 FosB KO; independent samples t-test compared to control). c FosB silencing in vHPC-NAc does not affect crossover latency in the passive avoidance learning paradigm (n = 7 control, n = 8 FosB KO), or d anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus maze (EPM). e Schematic of dual-vector CRISPR silencing FosB in vHPC-BLA neurons. f FosB silencing in vHPC-BLA does not affect stress-induced social avoidance (n = 11 control, n = 10 FosB KO). g FosB silencing in vHPC-BLA impairs avoidance learning. #P = 0.0614 (n = 6 control, n = 8 FosB KO; two-way mixed ANOVA with Holm–Sidak post-tests compared to control). h FosB silencing in vHPC-BLA decreases anxiety-like behavior in the EPM, increasing time spent and entries into the open arms. **P = 0.0079 for time spent and **P = 0.0022 for entries (n = 5 control, n = 8 FosB KO; independent samples t-test compared to control). All graphs are represented as mean ± SEM.
