Fig. 4: VGF is necessary and sufficient for scaling PV–PV connectivity.

a, Experimental strategy. b, Presynaptic SYT2⁺ puncta and postsynaptic gephyrin⁺ clusters in shLacZ, shScg2 and shVgf expressing PV⁺ interneurons in vehicle- and CNO-treated mice. Insets show PV and mCherry immunoreactivity in cell somata. Scale bar, 1 µm. c, Quantification of the change in synaptic density between infected and uninfected PV⁺ interneurons in CNO-treated mice injected with hM3Dq-shLacZ (n = 10 mice), hM3Dq-shScg2 (n = 9 mice, two-tailed one-sample t-test, P = 0.049) and hM3Dq-shVgf (n = 8 mice, two-tailed one-sample t-test, P = 0.003). d, Experimental strategy. e, Presynaptic SYT2⁺ puncta and postsynaptic gephyrin⁺ clusters in mCherry- and Vgf-mCherry-expressing PV⁺ interneurons. Insets show PV and mCherry immunoreactivity in cell somata. Scale bar, 1 µm. f, Quantification of change in synaptic density between neighbouring uninfected and infected PV⁺ interneurons in mice injected with Vgf-mCherry (uninfected, n = 5 mice; CNO, n = 5 mice; two-tailed Student’s t-test, P = 0.003). Data are mean ± s.e.m. Schematics in a,d adapted from ref. ⁶⁸ (reprinted with permission from AAAS) and ref. ⁶⁹.

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