Story perspectives

K27 Polyubiquitination Crucial for Female Rats' Fear Memory

6/9/2026

Summary

Story summary

Timothy Jarome, associate professor at Virginia Tech, found that K27 polyubiquitination in the hippocampus is needed for contextual fear-memory retention in female rats but not in males.
After a fear-learning task, K27 polyubiquitination surged in the female hippocampus while staying unchanged in males and in the amygdala of either sex.
Gene-editing suppression of K27 polyubiquitination eliminated fear-memory retention in female rats but left male memory performance intact.

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Story summary

Timothy Jarome, associate professor at Virginia Tech, found that K27 polyubiquitination in the hippocampus is needed for contextual fear-memory retention in female rats but not in males.
After a fear-learning task, K27 polyubiquitination surged in the female hippocampus while staying unchanged in males and in the amygdala of either sex.
Gene-editing suppression of K27 polyubiquitination eliminated fear-memory retention in female rats but left male memory performance intact.