TY - JOUR T1 - Measuring Nonapoptotic Caspase Activity with a Transgenic Reporter in Mice JF - eneuro JO - eNeuro DO - 10.1523/ENEURO.0147-21.2022 VL - 9 IS - 5 SP - ENEURO.0147-21.2022 AU - P. J. Nicholls AU - Thomas F. Pack AU - Nikhil M. Urs AU - Sunil Kumar AU - Yang Zhou AU - Gabriel Ichim AU - Joshua D. Ginzel AU - Gabor Turu AU - Evan Calabrese AU - Wendy L. Roberts AU - Ping Fan AU - Valeriy G. Ostapchenko AU - Monica S. Guzman Lenis AU - Flavio Beraldo AU - Jiri Hatina AU - Vania F. Prado AU - Marco A. M. Prado AU - Ivan Spasojevic AU - Joshua C. Snyder AU - Kafui Dzirasa AU - G. Allan Johnson AU - Marc G. Caron Y1 - 2022/09/01 UR - http://www.eneuro.org/content/9/5/ENEURO.0147-21.2022.abstract N2 - The protease caspase-3 is a key mediator of apoptotic programmed cell death. But weak or transient caspase activity can contribute to neuronal differentiation, axonal pathfinding, and synaptic long-term depression. Despite the importance of sublethal, or nonapoptotic, caspase activity in neurodevelopment and neural plasticity, there has been no simple method for mapping and quantifying nonapoptotic caspase activity (NACA) in rodent brains. We therefore generated a transgenic mouse expressing a highly sensitive and specific fluorescent reporter of caspase activity, with peak signal localized to the nucleus. As a proof of concept, we first obtained evidence that NACA influences neurophysiology in an amygdalar circuit. Then focusing on the amygdala, we were able to quantify a sex-specific persistent elevation in caspase activity in females after restraint stress. This simple in vivo caspase activity reporter will facilitate systems-level studies of apoptotic and nonapoptotic phenomena in behavioral and pathologic models. ER -