Behavioral phenotyping of mice lacking the deubiquitinase USP2

PLoS One. 2021 Feb 23;16(2):e0241403. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241403. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Ubiquitin specific peptidase 2 (USP2) is a deubiquitinating enzyme expressed almost ubiquitously in the body, including in multiple brain regions. We previously showed that mice lacking USP2 present altered locomotor activity rhythms and response of the clock to light. However, the possible implication of USP2 in regulating other behaviors has yet to be tested. To address this, we ran a battery of behavioral tests on Usp2 KO mice. Firstly, we confirmed our prior findings of increased daily activity and reduced activity fragmentation in Usp2 KO mice. Further, mice lacking USP2 showed impaired motor coordination and equilibrium, a decrease in anxiety-like behavior, a deficit in working memory and in sensorimotor gating. On the other hand, no effects of Usp2 gene deletion were found on spatial memory. Hence, our data uncover the implication of USP2 in different behaviors and expands the range of the known functions of this deubiquitinase.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Anxiety / genetics
  • Anxiety / metabolism
  • Behavior, Animal
  • Circadian Rhythm
  • Exploratory Behavior
  • Gene Deletion
  • Locomotion
  • Male
  • Memory, Short-Term
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Knockout
  • Open Field Test
  • Ubiquitin Thiolesterase / genetics*
  • Ubiquitin Thiolesterase / metabolism

Substances

  • Ubiquitin Thiolesterase
  • Usp2 protein, mouse

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-249731-2006 and RGPIN-2017-04675, to N.C.) and Velux Stiftung (Project 927, to N.C.), a graduate fellowship from the Faculty of Medicine, McGill University (to K.S.) and a graduate research stipend from the NSERC CD-CREATE Program (to S.S.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.