mortality/aging
• fewer than expected male but not female mutants are found at birth
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behavior/neurological
• in contextual fear conditioning, mutants show less freezing than wild-type mice when context-dependent memory is tested 24 hours after training or 7 days after training
• however, when the shock is paired with a tone as conditioned stimulus, freezing is normal in mutants 24 hours after shock, indicating impaired hippocampus-dependent learning and not decreased sensitivity to shock
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• in the Morris water maze, mutants show no preference for the target quadrant and do not show an increased number of platform position crossings during the probe trial, indicating impaired spatial learning
• however, mice do not exhibit overt motor performance deficits, reduced muscle strength, seizures, or social behavioral deficits, showing normal nest building and marble burying behaviors
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growth/size/body
• body weight reduction of about 12% compared to wild-type littermates is seen at 10 days of age
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nervous system
• mice exhibit a moderate but significant reduction in the ability to induce mGluR-dependent long-term depression in the hippocampus
• however, mice exhibit normal synaptic transmission, paired-pulse facilitation, and long-term potentiation
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