In addition, although numerous types of cargoes common to KIF5A, KIF5B, and KIF5C have been reported, KIF5A-specific cargo has not been reported. Thus, we searched for KIF5A-specific binding partners and examined buy Galunisertib its relationships

with the phenotypes of Kif5a-KO mice. We generated conditional Kif5a-KO (Kif5a−/−) mice using the Cre/loxP gene-targeting strategy ( Figures S1A–S1C available online). Immunoblotting of whole-brain lysates using an anti-KIF5A polyclonal antibody confirmed the complete absence of KIF5A in the Kif5a−/− mouse ( Figure S1D). These Kif5a−/− mice died shortly after birth. To circumvent lethality and postnatally analyze the gene function of Kif5a, we used a rat synapsin promoter-driven Cre transgenic line (Syn-Cretg/•) ( Zhu et al., 2001) and crossed Selleck HSP inhibitor Kif5a+/−;Syn-Cretg/• mice with Kif5afl/fl mice to obtain conditional KO mice (Kif5afl/−;Syn-Cretg/•). We considered the other three genotypes of mice (Kif5afl/+, Kif5afl/+;Syn-Cretg/•, and Kif5afl/−) as controls because their general appearance and body sizes were normal. In addition, we did not find any structural abnormalities in their brains or observe behavioral abnormalities. Postnatal growth of Kif5a-conditional

KO mice was indistinguishable from that of control mice for up to 1 week. However, after the first week, conditional Kif5a-KO mice showed growth retardation and died at approximately 3 weeks postnatally. We did not find any Kif5a-conditional KO mice that survived for 4 weeks after birth in all litters used in this study (more than 50 litters). Immunoblotting of whole-brain lysates showed that KIF5A protein expression levels in Kif5a-conditional KO mouse brains ranged from 14% to 47% of those in control mouse brains ( Figure 1A). There were no apparent histological abnormalities in the brains of Kif5a-KO and conditional KO mice ( Figures S1E and S1F). Although postnatal

loss of KIF5A has been reported to cause seizures (Xia et al., 2003), the observation was limited to the general appearance of mice. In this study, we performed electroencephalographic (EEG) recording of control and Kif5a-conditional KO mice. the The electrode was implanted into the hippocampus of the brain ( Figures 1B–1H). In the Kif5a-conditional KO mouse brain, paroxysmal sharp waves were often observed in rest and locomotive states ( Figures 1F and 1G; Movies S1 and S2). Long-term recording during night periods identified repetitive spike-wave discharges that are known to represent a classical epileptic EEG ( McCormick and Contreras, 2001) ( Figure 1H). After these epileptic seizure events, Kif5a-conditional KO mice occasionally did not recover normal leg movement for up to 2 hr ( Figure 1I; Movie S3). A small number of mice repeated this epileptic episode several times during the night.