Fig. 2

Cox10 deficient mice display abnormal motor behaviors at 2 months of age. a Body weight measurement of 2, 4, 8 and 12-month-old animals: Cox10/DAT-cre mice (green triangles) showed a significant reduction in weight compared to age matched DAT-cre mice (lilac circles) (n = 10-15). b Activity cage: two-month-old Cox10/DAT-cre mice have less exploratory behavior and spontaneous activity compared to DAT-cre animals (n = 8). c-d Pole test c and rotarod d performed by 2-month-old Cox10/DAT-cre and DAT-cre mice. Cox10/DAT-cre mice show less coordination, not been able to descend the pole and falling from the road after less than one minute (n = 10). e Open field test: Cox10/DAT-cre mice show a reduced voluntary movement with decreased travelled distance and a decreased ambulatory and rearing activity compared to DAT-cre animals (n = 7); f-g Worsening of the motor phenotype in 4-month-old animals. 4 and 6-month-old Cox10/DAT-cre mice perform worse on the rotarod f and show reduced voluntary movement compared to 2-month-old animals g. h-i Pole test h and rotarod i performed by 2-month-old Cox10/DAT-cre mice before and after increasing dosage of L-DOPA (n = 4). Motor defects were rescued by the higher L-DOPA dosage. l: representative image of route travelled by a mouse before (upper panel) and one hour after injection with the highest dosage (25 mg/kg) of L-DOPA (lower panel)