Neural circuits formed during postnatal development have to be maintained stably thereafter, but their mechanisms remain largely unknown. Here we report that the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 1 (mGluR1) is essential for the maintenance of mature synaptic connectivity in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN). In mGluR1 knockout (mGluR1-KO) mice, strengthening and elimination at retinogeniculate synapses occurred normally until around postnatal day 20 (P20). However, during the subsequent visual-experience-dependent maintenance phase, weak retinogeniculate synapses were newly recruited. These changes were similar to those of wild-type (WT) mice that underwent visual deprivation or inactivation of mGluR1 in the dLGN from P21. Importantly, visual deprivation was ineffective in mGluR1-KO mice, and the changes induced by visual deprivation in WT mice were rescued by pharmacological activation of mGluR1 in the dLGN. These results demonstrate that mGluR1 is crucial for the visual-experience-dependent maintenance of mature synaptic connectivity in the dLGN.
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