Involvement of protein-tyrosine phosphatase PTPMEG in motor learning and cerebellar long-term depression

Eur J Neurosci. 2007 Oct;26(8):2269-78. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2007.05829.x.

Abstract

Although protein-tyrosine phosphorylation is important for hippocampus-dependent learning, its role in cerebellum-dependent learning remains unclear. We previously found that PTPMEG, a cytoplasmic protein-tyrosine phosphatase expressed in Purkinje cells (PCs), bound to the carboxyl-terminus of the glutamate receptor delta2 via the postsynaptic density-95/discs-large/ZO-1 domain of PTPMEG. In the present study, we generated PTPMEG-knockout (KO) mice, and addressed whether PTPMEG is involved in cerebellar plasticity and cerebellum-dependent learning. The structure of the cerebellum in PTPMEG-KO mice appeared grossly normal. However, we found that PTPMEG-KO mice showed severe impairment in the accelerated rotarod test. These mice also exhibited impairment in rapid acquisition of the cerebellum-dependent delay eyeblink conditioning, in which conditioned stimulus (450-ms tone) and unconditioned stimulus (100-ms periorbital electrical shock) were co-terminated. Moreover, long-term depression at parallel fiber-PC synapses was significantly attenuated in these mice. Developmental elimination of surplus climbing fibers and the physiological properties of excitatory synaptic inputs to PCs appeared normal in PTPMEG-KO mice. These results suggest that tyrosine dephosphorylation events regulated by PTPMEG are important for both motor learning and cerebellar synaptic plasticity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Behavior, Animal / physiology
  • Blinking / physiology
  • Cerebellum / cytology
  • Cerebellum / physiology*
  • Conditioning, Psychological / physiology*
  • Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
  • Electric Stimulation / methods
  • In Vitro Techniques
  • Long-Term Synaptic Depression / genetics
  • Long-Term Synaptic Depression / physiology*
  • Memory Disorders / genetics
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Knockout
  • Motor Activity / genetics
  • Motor Activity / physiology*
  • Neurons / physiology
  • Neurons / radiation effects
  • Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases / deficiency
  • Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases / physiology*
  • Psychomotor Performance
  • Rotarod Performance Test / methods
  • Time Factors

Substances

  • Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases