Abstract Exposure to chronic stress produces negative effects on mood and hippocampus-dependent memory formation. SIRT2 alteration has been reported in mood disorders; however, the role of SIRT2 in depression remains unclear. Therefore, we aimed to determine whether SIRT2 can restore stress-induced suppression of neurogenesis in a rat chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) model of depression. Sucrose preference test, home-cage locomotion, forced swim test and elevated plus maze were used to determine the role of SIRT2 in CUS model. To further determine the hippocampal neurogenesis contributes to the role of SIRT in mediating the antidepressant-like behavior, rats were exposed to X-irradiation to disrupt the process of hippocampal neurogenesis. CUS decreased expression of the SIRT2 protein in the hippocampus. Treatment with the antidepressant fluoxetine reversed the CUS-induced SIRT2 change. Furthermore, inhibiting SIRT2 by tenovin-D3 resulted in depression-like behaviors and impaired hippocampal neurogenesis in rats. Conversely, overexpression of SIRT2 by the intra-hippocampal infusion of recombinant adenovirus vector expressing mouse SIRT2 reversed the CUS-induced depressive-like behaviors and promoted neurogenesis. Disrupting neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus by X-irradiation abolished the antidepressant-like effect of Ad-SIRT2-GFP. These findings indicate that hippocampal SIRT2 is involved in the modulation of depressant-like behaviors, possibly by regulating neurogenesis.