Figure 4. The density of Vglut1 synapses onto Purkinje cells increases between P7 and P14 in control mice and is lower in En1^Cre/+;Atoh1^fl/- mice.

(A) Schematic of Purkinje cell microcircuit in control (left) and En1^Cre/+;Atoh1^fl/- mice (right) at P7 and P14. Vglut1 is expressed in granule cell (pink) and some mossy fiber (gray) terminals but not in Purkinje cells (green) or climbing fiber (orange) terminals. Abbreviations: ml = molecular layer; pcl = Purkinje cell layer; gcl = granule cell layer. (B) Representative images for Vglut1 density in the cerebellum of control (top) and En1^Cre/+;Atoh1^fl/- mice (bottom) at P7 and P14. Left panels are gray-scale images of the Vglut1 signal and right images show the merged images of the Vglut1 (pink) and Calbindin (green) signals. (C) Density of Vglut1 synapses as a percentage of area of interest (AOI; AOI comprises the molecular and Purkinje cell layer in cerebella from control animals and the area occupied by Purkinje cells in the cerebella of En1^Cre/+;Atoh1^fl/- mice). Significance was established based on the average of each mouse (N=3 mice per genotype, large circles; n=3–5 tissue sections, small dots) using a two-way ANOVA (genotype*age) followed by a Tukey Kramer post-hoc analysis. *p=0.05. The raw data and specific P-values for the comparisons are presented in Figure 4—source data 1.