Association Between CBP/PCAF And Human Cognitive Ability

CBP and PCAF are common acetyltransferase, which acetylate histones and nonhistone proteins to regulate gene expression. Both CBP and PCAF also act as transcriptional co-activators, which bridge the transcriptional factors to the basal transcriptional complex. CBP mutations cause Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome which is characterized with mental retardation. In recent years, the studies with animal model have found that ablations of CBP and PCAF cause memory defects. However, the relationship between CBP/PCAF and human cognitive ability is not clear.In the study,965unrelated participants were recruited from freshmen of an university in Shaan xi province. All of them are Chinese Han population. We have tested their working memory, central executive function, long-term memory, spatial cognitive ability, verbal cognitive ability and general fluid intelligence. Four Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), including rs130016, rs11076786, rs130032and rs2526689, have been selected on the introns of CBP gene. rs17006625has been selected on the exon of PCAF gene. All SNPs were genotyped by Polymerase Chain Reaction-Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism (PCR-SSCP). The effects of genotypes on the cognitive variables were assessed with one way ANOVA test.The results showed that rs11076786of CBP gene was significantly associated with reading working memory span, visuo-spatial working memory span (in males), digital working memory span and digital working memory mean reaction time. rs11076786was significantly associated with verbal fluency and analogical reasoning of verbal cognitive ability, with Raven’s score of general fluid intelligence. rs11076786was significantly associated with mental set shifting of central executive function in females. rs17006625of PCAF gene was significantly associated with the visual spatial working memory mean reaction time and digital memory.The results suggest that CBP is invovled in some of the human cognitive functions, especially in working memory, verbal cognitive ability and general fluid intelligence. PCAF gene is invovled in human visual spatial memory and long-term memory.