Fig. 7
From: Delta opioid receptors affect acoustic features of song during vocal learning in zebra finches
(a) Single bands were obtained in western blots performed using zebra finch brain lysate for PSD-95 at 95kD, Synaptotagmin at 65kD and DARPP-32 at 32kD using specific antibodies (anti-PSD-95, ab9708, Abcam, USA; anti-synaptotagmin, MAB5200, MERCK Millipore; anti-DARPP32, ab40801, Abcam, USA). The synaptic markers were used to label synapses in (b) control and (c) treated birds, respectively. Insets show a magnified view of the synaptic contacts (yellow). (d) There was a significant increase in the number of possibly excitatory synapses within the song control nucleus Area X of treated birds during development, suggesting that altering δ-OR signaling can cause long term changes in synaptic connectivity within the basal ganglia. Scale bar, 10 μm. Bar graphs represent mean values and error bars represent the standard deviation. Each dot in the scatter plot represents average puncta values per field per bird. (e) Comparisons of the number of synapses between siblings showed that a higher number of synapses were observed in Area X of the naltrindole-treated birds versus controls in each set