Fig. 4: Behavioural phenotyping of DMD mouse models.

A Expression pattern of brain dystrophins in dystrophin-deficient mouse lines. Mutation position and differential expression of the three brain dystrophins are shown for mouse lines carrying spontaneous mutations (mdx), chemically-induced mutations (mdx4cv, mdx3cv), transgenic deletion of a specific exon (mdx52) or whole dmd gene (dmd-null), and transgenic insertion (Dp71-null). E: exon; I: intron; del-: deletion; ( + ) protein expressed; (-) protein absent. B–E Illustrative images of the main behavioural tests that revealed key phenotypes in DMD mouse models. The tests tackled distinct brain-related functions including: B motor functions using the inverted grid (left) and rotarod (right) tests; C emtional and stress reactivity following scruff restraint (left drawing) or using elevated plus maze, light-dark choice and open-field anxiety tests (three last drawings, respectively); D social behaviour during social approach test (left) and socially-induced ultrasonic vocalisations (right); E cognitive functions using, respectively from top to bottom drawings, an object recognition test, fear conditioning, spatial working memory tasks in radial or T mazes, and spatial learning tasks in water maze. Created in BioRender¹⁰⁴.