Fig. 5

Propriospinal and mechanosensory input on Shank2^high expressing neurons. Synaptic input on Shank2 high expressing glycinergic neurons. a–c Excitatory pre-synaptic input on Shank2 post-synaptic structures show both a vGlut1 (27.8 ± 7.1% of total Shank2 area) and vGlut2 (64.0 ± 9.5% of total Shank2 area) input on glycinergic interneurons; (N = 3) scale bar overview: 2.5 µm; insert: 1 µm. d and e Detection of GFP positive buttons on Shank2 positive terminals in an c-RET-GFP mouse to show mechanosensory afferents on Shank2^high expressing neurons; (N = 3) scale bar D: 5 µm; scale bar: E. f IF staining on postmortem human spinal cord reveals that Shank2 post-synaps receive vGluT1 pre-synaptic input (36.9 ± 14.1% of Shank2 positive puncta; white arrows); (N = 3) scale bar: 10 µm. g–j post-synaptic structure GluN1 shows a significant decrease in size on glycinergic neurons in Shank2^−/− mice (p < 0.0001), however this decrease was not observed in the post-synaptic structure Homer (p > 0.05); (N = 4; panel h; n = WT: 299; shank2^−/−: 265 synapses; panel j; n = WT: 231; Shank^−/−: 223 synapses) scale bar overview: 5 µm; insert: 2 µm. k–n Pre-synaptic structure vGlut1 was not affected on glycinergic cells in Shank2^−/− mice (p > 0.05), interestingly vGlut2 shows a significant decrease in size on glycinergic neurons in Shank2^−/− mice (p < 0.0001); (N = 4; panel l; n = WT: 306; shank2^−/−: 297 synapses; panel j; n = WT: 211; Shank.^−/−: 208 synapses) scale bar: 5 µm; insert: 2 µm. Data shown as average ± SD and box and whiskers (10–90 percentile). *p < 0.05