Figure 4. ELKS1α and ELKS2α are dispensable for dopamine release in the dorsal striatum.

(A) Sample traces of dopamine release evoked by electrical stimulation in slices of ELKS cKO^DA and sibling ELKS control mice. In all electrophysiological experiments, ELKS cKO^DA are mice in which ELKS1α and ELKS2α are removed specifically in dopamine neurons, and ELKS control mice are siblings of ELKS cKO^DA that have one wild-type allele for each ELKS encoding gene.

(B) Quantification of peak amplitude in (A). ELKS control n = 12 slices/4 mice, ELKS cKO^DA 12/4 (p = 0.53 for genotype, p < 0.001 for stimulation intensity and p = 0.92 for interaction; two-way ANOVA).

(C) Sample traces (average of 4 sweeps) of dopamine release evoked during 10 Hz electrical stimulation in ELKS control and ELKS cKO^DA mice.

(D) Quantification of (C). Amplitudes were normalized to the average first amplitude in ELKS control. ELKS control n = 12 slices/4 mice, ELKS cKO^DA n = 12/4 (p = 0.96 for genotype, p < 0.001 for stimulus number and p = 0.96 for interaction; two-way ANOVA).

(E) Sample traces of dopamine release evoked by a local puff of 100 mM KCl for 10 s in ELKS control and ELKS cKO^DA mice.

(F) Quantification of peak amplitude in (E). ELKS control n = 13 slices/5 mice, ELKS cKO^DA n = 15/5.

All data are mean ± SEM. ns, not significant; two-way ANOVA for (B, D) and Mann-Whitney rank sum test for (F).