Research reportIncentive loss and hippocampal gene expression in inbred Roman high- (RHA-I) and Roman low- (RLA-I) avoidance rats

•We analyzed hippocampal gene expression profile of the Roman rat strains after iSNC.•The iSNC frustration effect appeared only in the more anxious RLA-I rats.•We detected four genes with relevance for brain function and behavior.•These genes have been linked to schizophrenia, depression, anxiety and drug addiction.•These results lend support to the usefulness of Roman rats for neurogenetic research.

Two recent microarray and qRT-PCR studies showed that inbred Roman high- (RHA-I, low anxiety and frustration vulnerability) and low-avoidance (RLA-I, high anxiety and frustration vulnerability) rats, psychogenetically selected on the basis of their divergence in two-way avoidance performance, differed in basal whole-brain and hippocampal expression of genes related to neurotransmission, emotion, stress, aversive learning, and drug seeking behavior. We have extended these studies by analyzing strain differences in hippocampal gene expression following a frustrative experience involving reward downshift, i.e. instrumental successive negative contrast (iSNC), a phenomenon in which the sudden reduction of an expected reward induces frustration/anxiety. Food-deprived male Roman rats were exposed to a reduction in the amount of solid food presented in the goal of a straight alley (from 12 pellets in “training” trials - i.e. preshift trials- to 2 pellets in “frustration testing” trials - i.e. postshift trials-). The iSNC effect, as measured by response latencies in the “postshift” trials, appeared only in RLA-I rats (i.e. higher response latencies in the 12-2 RLA-I group as compared to the 2-2 RLA-I control group in postshift trials). Two and a half hours after the “postshift” behavioral test, hippocampi were removed and stored (−80 °C) until analysis. Microarray analysis of these hippocampi showed that four differentially-expressed, and qRT-PCR-validated genes (TAAR2, THAP1, PKD2L1, NANOS), have relevance for brain function and behavior, including schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, and drug addiction, thus showing the usefulness of Roman strains as a genetic model for research on the neurogenetic basis of frustration.