Fig. 6: Discn knockout (KO) causes newborn death and compromises brain functions in survived adults.

a Discn^+/− crossing generated pups with normal Mendelian ratios. b Discn^−/− females mated with Discn^+/− or Discn^−/− males had normal litter sizes and Mendelian ratios. c Survival curve of offsprings from different mating strategies. Note that Discn^−/− pups from Discn^−/− crossings displayed newborn death, and administration of ibuprofen (0.4 mg/mL) to pregnant females alleviated the neonate death. Adult Discn^−/− mice and their WT littermates from Discn^+/− crossings were utilized for behavioral tests. In open field test, Discn^−/− mice spent less time in the center zone (d) and entered fewer times into the center zone (e) compared to the WT littermates. In light–dark box test, Discn^−/− mice stayed in the light box for less time than WT littermates (f). In self-grooming behavior analysis, Discn^−/− mice spent longer time (g) and showed more bouts (h) on self-grooming when compared to WT littermates. In Morris water maze test, at 72 h after 7-day probe trials, Discn^−/− mice showed fewer platform crossings than WT littermates (i). In rotarod test, Discn^−/− mice stayed on the rotating rod for shorter time than WT littermates (j). Data were representative of individual values with box and whiskers plots showing the median, upper and lower quartiles, and minimum and maximum in (d–j). Statistical differences were determined using two-tailed Student’s t-test.