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Fig. 6 | Molecular Autism

Fig. 6

From: Targeting of δ-catenin to postsynaptic sites through interaction with the Shank3 N-terminus

Fig. 6

Effect of Shank3 on localization of δ-catenin in neurons. a Primary rat hippocampal neurons were transfected (DIV7) with RFP-δ-catenin together with either an empty pHAGE-GFP construct as control or pHAGE-GFP-Shank3 construct. The neurons were fixed (DIV14) and stained for MAP2 as dendritic marker and PSD-95 as synaptic marker (scale bar 20 µm). In the control condition δ-catenin shows a diffused signal throughout transfected neurons, whereas coexpression of Shank3 results in recruiting more δ-catenin to postsynaptic sites with a distinct punctate pattern along dendrites. Boxed areas are magnified for GFP, RFP and PSD-95 signals (scale bar 5 μm). b Using ImageJ, targeting of overexpressed δ-catenin to the postsynaptic sites was quantified as ratio of fluorescence signal intensity in dendritic spines (positive for PSD-95) versus the signal intensity in adjacent dendritic shafts. 150 spines of 15 neurons obtained from three independent experiments per each condition were analysed. The results of quantitative analyses show that Shank3 significantly increases the level of δ-catenin in the postsynaptic sites (n = 15, unpaired T test, ****p < 0.0001, mean ± SD)

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