# Assessing the role of circRNAs in memory consolidation

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA · 2022 · $241,500

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 Among different RNA species, circular RNAs (circRNAs) are particularly fascinating because they are
highly resistant to degradation. This novel class of RNAs is expressed in a variety of eukaryotic organisms, in
different cell types including neurons, and demonstrates conservation across mammals. Furthermore, they are
regulated independently of their cognate linear isoforms. Mechanistically they can function as miRNA sponges,
regulate splicing and transcription, bind to RNA binding proteins. Some circRNAs possess IRES and therefore
could be translated. However, whether circRNAs play a critical role in long-term memory is unknown. Thus, a
deep understanding of the contribution of circRNAs to LTM is expected to provide mechanistic insights and
identify novel regulators of LTM. To this end, using contextual fear memory as a model for LTM, we have
carried out an unbiased analysis of expression of circRNAss from the dentate gyrus (DG) subregion of the
mouse hippocampus. Preliminary analysis of differentially expressed circRNAs in DG has resulted in the
identification of three different circRNAs that are upregulated (padj<0.05) in fear-conditioned animals
compared to context alone or shock alone controls. These results suggest that circRNAs are subjected to
transcriptional changes during learning. The central hypothesis of this proposal is that the transcriptional
changes in specific circRNAs in hippocampal subregions mediate the consolidation of contextual fear
memory. To test this hypothesis, we here propose to carry out unbiased analysis of temporal regulation of
circRNA expression in the tri-synaptic circuitry of the hippocampus following contextual fear conditioning, and
functional dissection of differentially expressed circRNAs. We anticipate that successful completion of the
experiments outlined in this proposal will unravel novel roles of circRNAs mechanisms in long-term memory
storage.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10425435
- **Project number:** 5R21MH127734-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** Sathya Puthanveettil
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $241,500
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-07-01 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10425435

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10425435, Assessing the role of circRNAs in memory consolidation (5R21MH127734-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10425435. Licensed CC0.

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