To examine the generality of the subtractive mechanism of alcohol reorganization of BK transcript landscape in other brain regions, we extended our study to the striatum - a brain region important in the development of various types of addiction (Hyman et al., 2006;Koob, 1999). Using striatal cell culture we observed similar changes (Figure 2E, F). Interestingly, alcohol reorganization of BK splice variants in medium spiny neurons was even more profound then in the SON, since ALCOREX was found in half of the total BK transcripts in unexposed striatum, and alcohol caused greater changes in relative expression: 10-fold downregulation of ALCOREX, and a larger increase in INSERTLESS (Figure 2F).
