Patent ID: 7005256

Claim:
A method of identifying a gene or genes involved in transcription-dependent memory comprising the steps of: (a) training non-human animals to induce transcription-dependent memory formation in said animals; (b) extracting total RNA from brain tissue of said animals trained in step (a); (c) synthesizing labeled cDNA probes complementary to the RNA extracted in step (b); (d) hybridizing the cDNA probes synthesized in step (c) to microarray chips containing DNA sequences from genes of the genome of said non-human animals under conditions appropriate for hybridization of the cDNA probes to complementary DNA sequences on the microarray chips, wherein a signal is produced from said labeled cDNA probes upon hybridization to complementary DNA sequences; (e) detecting the signal produced in step (d); and (f) performing a statistical comparison between the signal detected in step (e) and a signal detected in a control for each gene, wherein said control is obtained according to a method comprising the steps of: (i) training non-human control animals to induce transcription-independent memory formation but not transcription-dependent memory formation in said non-human control animals; (ii) extracting total RNA from brain tissue of said non-human control animals trained in step (f)(i); (iii) synthesizing labeled cDNA probes complementary to the RNA extracted in step (f)(ii); and (iv) hybridizing the cDNA probes synthesized in step (f)(iii) to microarray chips containing DNA sequences from genes of the genome of control animals under conditions appropriate for hybridization of the cDNA probes to complementary DNA sequences on the microarray chips, wherein a signal is produced from said labeled cDNA probes upon hybridization to complementary DNA sequences.