Story at a glance
- Neuroscientists are interested in the mechanisms underlying our stress response.
- One way they can examine our response is by focusing on specific genes.
- A study in mice suggests the Tob gene plays an important role in recovering from a stressful situation.
How we respond to stress is complex and involves various parts of our brain and body. Researchers are getting closer by isolating specific genes to study in mice to better understand their roles in anxiety, fear and depression responses. A new study looks at the Tob gene, which produces a protein that spikes in our brain after we’ve been exposed to stress.
Nicknamed the “jumping gene,” the Tob gene codes for a protein that is important for neurons that respond to stress. Its nickname comes from the Japanese word meaning to fly or jump.
When we’re exposed to stressful stimuli in our environment, the cells in our brain produce more of the Tob protein in response. A paper published in Nature presents a step forward to understanding the role of Tob in our stress response, and potentially for anxiety and depression, as well.
“The Tob gene is related to many different phenomena but working on the brain system is particularly challenging,” said Tadashi Yamamoto at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University, who is the lead researcher on the study, to The Jerusalem Post. “Although it was previously suspected, this research is the first work that clarifies that Tob has a function in the brain against stress.”
In their experiments, Yamamoto and colleagues tested their ideas on mice in a laboratory setting. They compared mice with a normal Tob gene to mice where they removed the Tob gene, called Tob knockout mice because the gene has been “knocked out.”
Mice with the Tob gene showed increased levels of the Tob protein in response to stress. The Tob knockout mice showed signs of fear, anxiety and depression in their behavior. The researchers also found that this anxiety was connected to the hippocampus in the knockout mice.
Although this research is promising, more studies will be needed to understand the role of this gene and other genes in our stress response.
“We’ve concluded that the Tob gene within the hippocampus suppresses fear and depression,” said Mohieldin Youssef, first author on the study, to the Post. “But the suppression of anxiety must be regulated by another part of the brain.”
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