CA3 pyramidal cells, the targets of DGC-derived mossy fibers, exhibited normal morphologies with a small reduction in the numbers of synaptic spines. Other cells in the Wls fl/- Gfap-Cre hippocampus were minimally affected, as determined by single nucleus RNA sequencing. To test this model, we studied conditional knockout mice in which the vast majority of dentate granule cells (DGCs) fail to develop – including nearly all DGCs in the dorsal hippocampus – secondary to eliminating Wntless ( Wls) in a subset of cortical progenitors with Gfap-Cre. In the hippocampus, a widely accepted model posits that the dentate gyrus improves learning and memory by enhancing discrimination between inputs. Department of Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, United States.Neuroscience Institute at the New York University Langone Medical Center, New York University, United States.
Center for Neural Science, New York University, United States.Department of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, United States.Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, United States.Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, United States.Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, United States.Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Center for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway.Furchgott Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, United States Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Robert F.Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, United States.Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, United States.