CREB Regulates Distinct Adaptive Transcriptional Programs in Astrocytes and Neurons

The cyclic AMP response element binding protein (CREB) is a primary hub of activity-driven genetic programs in neurons controlling plasticity, neurogenesis and survival. By contrast, the gene networks coordinated by CREB in astrocytes are unknown despite the fact that the astrocytic CREB is also activity-driven and neuroprotective. Herein we identified the transcriptional programs regulated by CREB in astrocytes as compared to neurons using, as study materials, transcriptome databases of astrocyte exposed to well-known activators of CREB-dependent transcription as well as publicly available transcriptomes of neuronal cultures. Functional CREB signatures were extracted from the transcriptomes using Gene Ontology, adult-brain gene lists generated by Translating Ribosome Affinity Purification (TRAP) and CREB-target gene repositories. We found minimal overlap between CREB signatures in astrocytes and neurons. In astrocytes, the top triad of functions regulated by CREB consists of ‘Gene expression’, ‘Mitochondria’, and ‘Signalling’, while in neurons it is ‘Neurotransmission’, ‘Signalling’ and ‘Gene expression’, the latter two being represented by different genes from those in astrocytes. The newly generated databases will provide a tool to explore novel means whereby CREB impinges on brain functions requiring adaptive, long-lasting changes by coordinating transcriptional cascades in astrocytes.