Figure 6.

Inhibition of DNMT activation during memory consolidation prevents bdnf DNA demethylation and mRNA expression. A, Sequence map of bdnf exon IV DNA is shown including the 12 CpG sites (bold). Methylation analysis of the 12 CpG dinucleotides of exon IV show that DNMT inhibition altered the percentage of cytosine residues that were demethylated with fear conditioning. B, At 2 h after fear conditioning, DNMT inhibition with zebularine prevented an increase in bdnf exon IV mRNA (t₍₁₀₎ = 2.493, p = 0.0318, n = 6; one-way ANOVA, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, compared with naive controls; Student's t test, ^#p < 0.05, compared with context + shock). Error bars indicate SEM.