O-GlcNAcylation in Ventral Tegmental Area Dopaminergic Neurons Regulates Motor Learning and the Response to Natural Reward
Ming-Shuo Shao1 • Xiao Yang1 • Chen-Chun Zhang1 • Chang-You Jiang1 • Ying Mao1 • Wen-Dong Xu1 • Lan Ma1 • Fei-Fei Wang1
1 Departments of Neurosurgery and Hand Surgery, Huashan Hospital, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and Ministry of Education Frontiers Center for Brain Science, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Abstract
Protein O-GlcNAcylation is a post-translational modification that links environmental stimuli with changes in intracellular signal pathways, and its disturbance has been found in neurodegenerative diseases and metabolic disorders. However, its role in the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system, especially in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), needs to be elucidated. Here, we found that injection of Thiamet G, an O-GlcNAcase (OGA) inhibitor, in the VTA and nucleus accumbens (NAc) of mice, facilitated neuronal O-GlcNAcylation and decreased the operant response to sucrose as well as the latency to fall in rotarod test. Mice with DAergic neuron-specific knockout of O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) displayed severe metabolic abnormalities and died within 4–8 weeks after birth. Furthermore, mice specifically overexpressing OGT in DAergic neurons in the VTA had learning defects in the operant response to sucrose, and impaired motor learning in the rotarod test. Instead, overexpression of OGT in GABAergic neurons in the VTA had no effect on these behaviors. These results suggest that protein O-GlcNAcylation of DAergic neurons in the VTA plays an important role in regulating the response to natural reward and motor learning in mice.
Keywords
O-GlcNAcylation; Dopaminergic neurons;Natural reward; Motor learning
