- Wei, Wei;
- Zhao, Qiongyi;
- Wang, Ziqi;
- Liau, Wei-Siang;
- Basic, Dean;
- Ren, Haobin;
- Marshall, Paul R;
- Zajaczkowski, Esmi L;
- Leighton, Laura J;
- Madugalle, Sachithrani U;
- Musgrove, Mason;
- Periyakaruppiah, Ambika;
- Shi, Jichun;
- Zhang, Jianjian;
- Mattick, John S;
- Mercer, Timothy R;
- Spitale, Robert C;
- Li, Xiang;
- Bredy, Timothy W
Here, we used RNA capture-seq to identify a large population of lncRNAs that are expressed in the infralimbic prefrontal cortex of adult male mice in response to fear-related learning. Combining these data with cell-type-specific ATAC-seq on neurons that had been selectively activated by fear extinction learning, we find inducible 434 lncRNAs that are derived from enhancer regions in the vicinity of protein-coding genes. In particular, we discover an experience-induced lncRNA we call ADRAM (activity-dependent lncRNA associated with memory) that acts as both a scaffold and a combinatorial guide to recruit the brain-enriched chaperone protein 14-3-3 to the promoter of the memory-associated immediate-early gene Nr4a2 and is required fear extinction memory. This study expands the lexicon of experience-dependent lncRNA activity in the brain and highlights enhancer-derived RNAs (eRNAs) as key players in the epigenomic regulation of gene expression associated with the formation of fear extinction memory.