Fig. 2.

Lipid-MERCs are decreased in live hippocampal primary neurons from transgenic rats. (A,B) FRET to CFP ratios (FRET:CFP) before and after linkage induction in response to rapamycin (indicated by an arrow) in WT and Tg neurons with short (A) or long (B) linkers, i.e. gap width <10 nm or ∼10–20 nm, respectively. Calculations were made for neuronal somata. Independent hippocampal primary neuronal cultures (n=3, WT; n=4, Tg) were performed using 10–12 embryos per culture. Data were obtained from 9–17 cells per group. Morphometric analysis of lipid-contact sites (<10 nm) in transmission electron microphotographs. (C,D) Box-and-whisker plots show percentage of lipid-MERCs (<10 nm) per total MERCs (10–30 nm; C) and percentage of lipid-MERCs (<10 nm) per number of mitochondria (Mt number) (D). Box represents the 25–75th percentiles, the median is indicated with a line and the mean with '+'. The whiskers show the minimum and maximum values.