| First Author | Kutsuwada T | Year | 1996 |
| Journal | Neuron | Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 2 | Pages | 333-44 |
| PubMed ID | 8789948 | Mgi Jnum | J:31622 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:79108 | Doi | 10.1016/s0896-6273(00)80051-3 |
| Citation | Kutsuwada T, et al. (1996) Impairment of suckling response, trigeminal neuronal pattern formation, and hippocampal LTD in NMDA receptor epsilon 2 subunit mutant mice. Neuron 16(2):333-44 |
| abstractText | Multiple epsilon subunits are major determinants of the NMDA receptor channel diversity. Based on their functional properties in vitro and distributions, we have proposed that the epsilon 1 and epsilon 2 subunits play a role in synaptic plasticity. To investigate the physiological significance of the NMDA receptor channel diversity, we generated mutant mice defective in the epsilon 2 subunit. These mice showed no suckling response and died shortly after birth but could survive by hand feeding. The mutation hindered the formation of the whisker-related neuronal barrelette structure and the clustering of primary sensory afferent terminals in the brain-stem trigeminal nucleus. In the hippocampus of the mutant mice, synaptic NMDA responses and long-term depression were abolished. These results suggest that the epsilon 2 subunit plays an essential role in both neuronal pattern formation and synaptic plasticity. |
