Otud7a-Null Mice Display Significantly Reduced Number of Functioning Excitatory Synapses
(A) Golgi-Cox staining shows significantly reduced number of dendritic spines in the frontal association cortex (FrA) and motor cortex (M) but not in the somatosensory cortex (S). Data were obtained from basal dendrites of layer II/III pyramidal neurons (n = 16–20) from 3 null and 3 wild-type female mice at 4 weeks old. Left: representative examples of dendritic segments of the Golgi-Cox stained neurons. Right: quantification of dendritic spine densities.
(B) Otud7a-null mice display significantly reduced mEPSC frequency in frontal cortices. Left: sample traces of mEPSCs. Right: average of amplitude and frequency of mEPSCs. Whole-cell recordings were performed on layer II/III pyramidal neurons from four null (n = 11) and four wild-type (n = 15) male mice at 8 to 11 weeks old. Data are presented as mean ± SEM (∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01).