a Workflow of murine primary cortical neurons (mPCN) isolation, drug treatment, and RT-qPCR analysis. b Epigenetic modulators used for treatment of mPCNs (left column) with enzymatic activities inhibited by them (right column). c Significant upregulation of paternal allele-derived Kcnk9 mRNA in DZnep-, SAHA-, VPA- and CI-994-treated E14 Kcnk9KOmat mPCNs compared with DMSO-treated Kcnk9KOmat mPCNs detected by RT-qPCR (3-day treatment, normalization to Impa2, DMSO n = 7 cultures/group, DZnep (20 µM) SAHA (30 µM), VPA (5 mM) and CI-994 (40 µM) n = 3 cultures/group). One-way ANOVA: F(5, 22) = 75.51, P < 0.0001; followed by Bonferroni’s multiple comparison post hoc test to Kcnk9KOmat DMSO control, ****P < 0.0001. d Upregulation of paternal allele-derived Kcnk9 mRNA after treatment of Kcnk9KOmat mPCNs with different CI-994 concentrations compared with paternal allele-derived Kcnk9 mRNA of DMSO-treated Kcnk9KOmat mPCNs and Kcnk9 mRNA of DMSO-treated WT mPCNs detected by RT-qPCR (1 day treatment, normalization to Impa2, Kcnk9KOmat DMSO n = 9; 4 µM n = 2; 20–80 µM n = 4 and WT DMSO n = 5 cultures/group). One-way ANOVA: F(5, 22) = 75.51, P < 0.0001; corrected with Bonferroni’s multiple comparison post hoc test to Kcnk9KOmat DMSO mPCNs, ***P < 0.001****, P < 0.0001, c, d performed in 2–4 independent experiments. e Duration of Kcnk9 derepression in vitro. Workflow is illustrated in schematical representation (left). After 1 and 10 days, Kcnk9 is significantly upregulated after CI-994 treatment in mPCN compared with DMSO controls. One day DMSO n = 2, 1 day CI-994 n = 3, day 10 DMSO n = 6, day 10 CI-994; n = 4; n = samples (3–5 wells/sample; 6 embryos pooled). Day 1: P = 0.0297, day 10: P = 0.0001, Mann–Whitney U. c–e Values are means ± SEM. Statistical analyses and approaches are provided in Supplementary Table 1. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. Images displaying the mouse, the embryo and the neurons in this figure were created using Servier Medical Art templates, which are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License; https://smart.servier.com.