Endogenous nitric oxide (NO) produced by the enzyme NO synthase (NOS) has an important role in a variety of physiological processes. However, NO becomes noxious to cells if produced in excess. Therefore, the production of NO is tightly regulated. A particularly exciting and novel aspect of the regulation of NO signalling is the possibility that the expression of NOS genes is controlled by unconventional mechanisms that depend on the presence of natural antisense transcripts (NATs). In this thesis I investigate the important properties of two distinct NOS-related NATs: Lym-antiNOS2 and Mm-antiNOS1. I show that Lym-antiNOS2 RNA is widely expressed in the CNS of the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis. Furthermore, I demonstrate that the expression of Lym-antiNOS2 is differentially regulated by training leading to long-term memory formation. Moreover, my results indicate that Lym-antiNOS2 RNA is subjected to peripheral trafficking in neurons. As for Mm-antiNOS1, I find that its expression is restricted to embryonic brain tissue and is almost undetectable in the adult brain of Mus musculus.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:554724 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Bettini, Natalia |
| Publisher | University of Sussex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/7420/ |
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