Neuronal expression of the ubiquitin E3 ligase APC/C-Cdh1 during development is required for long-term potentiation, behavioral flexibility, and extinction.

Cdh1 is a regulatory subunit of the Anaphase Promoting Complex/Cyclosome (APC/C), a ubiquitin E3 ligase known to be involved in regulating cell cycle progression. Recent studies have demonstrated a role for Cdh1 in neurons during developmental and adult synaptic plasticity, as well as memory. In order to better characterize the contribution of Cdh1 in synaptic plasticity and memory, we generated conditional knockout mice using a neuron-specific enolase (Nse) promoter where Cdh1 was eliminated in neurons from the onset of differentiation. Although we detected impaired long-term potentiation (LTP) in hippocampal slices from the Nse-Cdh1 knockout (KO) mice, performance on several hippocampus-dependent memory tasks remained intact. However, the Nse-Cdh1 KO mice exhibited impaired behavioral flexibility and extinction of previously consolidated memories. These findings suggest a role for Cdh1 in regulating the updating of consolidated memories.