Fig. 3.

Dock4 deficiency in hippocampus leads to social deficit and impaired excitatory synaptic transmission. a Adeno-associated virus (AAV)-Cre was bilaterally injected into the hippocampal CA1 region of Dock4^fl/fl mice. b Representative heatmap of movement of Dock4^fl/fl + AAV-vector or Dock4^fl/fl + AAV-Cre mice in the Three-chamber test at 4 weeks after virus injection. c, d Duration spent by two groups of mice in sniffing different cups during social approach (c) and social novelty (d) phases. E, empty cup; S1, cup containing stranger mouse #1; S2, cup containing stranger mouse #2. n = 11 Dock4^fl/fl + AAV-vector mice (6 males and 5 females), and n = 8 Dock4^fl/fl + AAV-Cre mice (4 males and 4 females). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ns, no significant, unpaired t test. e Representative (left) and average (right) traces of mEPSCs recorded from WT (black) and KO (red) hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cells. Magnified traces from the boxed regions are shown below. f, g Cumulative probability of mEPSC amplitude (f) and inter-event interval (g) in WT (15 cells, 4 mice) and KO (15 cells, 3 mice) groups. Insets: average mEPSC amplitude (f) and frequency (g) from WT and KO groups *P < 0.05, two sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. ^#P < 0.05, unpaired t test. h Representative (left) and average (right) traces of mIPSCs recorded from WT (black) and KO (red) hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cells. i, j Cumulative probability of mIPSC amplitude (i) and inter-event interval (j) in WT (18 cells, 3 mice) and KO (15 cells, 3 mice) groups. Insets: average mIPSC amplitude (i) and frequency (j) from WT and KO groups. k Representative traces of evoked EPSC and IPSC in same CA1 pyramidal cells from WT (black) and KO (red) mice. l, m The maximal EPSC (l) and IPSC (m) recorded from WT (20 cells, 6 mice) and KO (21 cells, 5 mice) groups. ***P < 0.001, ns, not significant, unpaired t test. (n) The calculated E/I ratio from WT and KO groups. ***P < 0.001, unpaired t test. o Representative traces of paired-pulse ratio (PPR) of EPSCs at different inter-stimulus intervals recorded from WT (black) and KO (red) mice. p The plot of PPR vs. different inter-stimulus intervals (WT: 10 cells, 4 mice; KO: 10 cells, 4 mice). Error bars: SEM