Impaired Locomotor Learning and Altered Cerebellar Synaptic Plasticity in pep-19/pcp4-Null Mice

PEP-19/PCP4 maps within the Down syndrome critical region and encodes a small, predominantly neuronal, IQ motif protein. Pep-19 binds calmodulin and inhibits calmodulin-dependent signaling, which is critical for synaptic function, and therefore alterations in Pep-19 levels may affect synaptic plasticity and behavior. To investigate its possible role, we generated and characterized pep-19/pcp4-null mice. Synaptic plasticity at excitatory synapses of cerebellar Purkinje cells, which express the highest levels of Pep-19, was dramatically altered in pep-19/pcp4-null mice. Instead of long-term depression, pep-19/pcp4-null mice exhibited long-term potentiation at parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapses. The mutant mice have a marked deficit in their ability to learn a locomotor task, as measured by improved performance upon repeated testing on an accelerating rotarod. Thus, our data indicate that pep-19/pcp4 is a critical determinant of synaptic plasticity in cerebellum and locomotor learning.