Members of the leukocyte common antigen-related receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase (LAR-RPTP) family, comprising PTPσ, PTPδ and LAR, are key hubs for presynaptic assembly and differentiation in vertebrate neurons. However, roles of individual LAR-RPTP members have not been investigated using member-specific conditional knockout mice. Here, we show that loss of PTPδ had no overt effect on synapse development in mouse cultured hippocampal neurons. Moreover, loss of PTPδ in presynaptic CA1 hippocampal neurons did not influence neurotransmitter release in subicular pyramidal neurons, suggesting that PTPδ is not critical for presynaptic function in vivo. Our results demonstrate that PTPδ is not essential for synapse maintenance or transmission, at least in the mouse hippocampus, and underscore the importance of using sophisticated genetic approaches to confirm the roles of synaptic proteins.
Keywords: LAR-RPTP; PTPδ; PTPσ; Synapse maintenance; Synaptic adhesion; Synaptic transmission.