Motor deficit and impairment of synaptic plasticity in mice lacking mGluR1

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 1 (mGluRl) is a member of a large family of G-protein-coupled glutamate receptors, the physiological functions of which are largely unknown. Mice deficient in mGluRl have severe motor coordination and spatial learning deficits. They have no gross anatomical or basic electrophysiological abnormalities in either the cerebellum or hippocampus, but they show impaired cerebellar long-term depression and hippocampal mossy fibre long-term potentiation. mGluRl-deficient mice should therefore be valuable models for studying synaptic plasticity. © 2002 Nature Publishing Group.