Figure 3.

In vivo GluK2 silencing results in a low frequency of mEPSCs and aberrant spine morphology in CA3 dendritic spines. (A–C) Reduced number of functional synapses in dendrites of shRNA_GluK2 expressing neurons. (A) Example traces of mEPSCs from EGFP-control and shRNA_GluK2 expressing CA3 pyramidal neurons. Pooled data for the frequency (B) and amplitude (C). Data are presented as mean ± SEM (p < 0.001 considered significant). (D–F upper panel) Example dendritic segments from apical proximal, distal, and tuft regions used for dendritic spine morphology analysis. The upper panel shows GFP-control and lower panel shRNA_GluK2 respectively. Calibration bar: 5 μm. (D–F lower panel) Quantification of spine density in apical proximal (thorny excrescence; D), distal (E), and Tuft (F) dendritic segments. Panel (G) shows the frequency distribution of the dendritic spine head width, spine length, and width/length ratio from apical distal dendritic segments. White bar and segmented lines represent data from EGFP-control cells. Orange-colored bars and filled lines represent data from shRNA_GluK2 expressing neurons.