Skip to main content
. 2008 Dec 31;28(53):14546–14556. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3112-08.2008

Figure 5.

Figure 5.

Preso knockdown decreases the number of dendritic spines and excitatory synapses. A, Effects of Preso shRNA knockdown on dendritic spines and excitatory synapses. Cultured neurons were transfected with a Preso knockdown construct (sh-Preso), empty pSuper vector (sh-vec), or sh-Preso plus rescue Preso expression construct (Rescue; human; DIV 9–16) and stained for EGFP (for shRNA transfection), PSD-95 (an excitatory postsynaptic marker), and synapsin I (a presynaptic marker). Scale bar, 5 μm. B–D, Preso knockdown reduces spine number (B) but not length (C) or width (D). Preso knockdown also reduces the number of excitatory synapses (E), as defined by synapsin I-positive PSD-95 clusters. Note that the human Preso expression construct, which differs from rat Preso by 2 nt in the 19 bp shRNA target region, fully rescues the negative effects of Preso knockdown on spine density and excitatory synapse number. Mean ± SEM (n = 22 for sh-vec, 22 for sh-Preso, and 30 for rescue; ***p < 0.001, ANOVA Tukey's test).