Behavioral characterization of Capn15 conditional knockout mice.

Calpain 15 (CAPN15) is an intracellular cysteine protease belonging to the non-classical small optic lobe (SOL) family of calpains, which has an important role in development. Loss of Capn15 in mice leads to developmental eye anomalies and volumetric changes in the brain. Human individuals with biallelic variants in CAPN15 have developmental delay, neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as congenital malformations.

Social propinquity in rodents as measured by tube cooccupancy differs between inbred and outbred genotypes.

Existing assays of social interaction are suboptimal, and none measures propinquity, the tendency of rodents to maintain close physical proximity. These assays are ubiquitously performed using inbred mouse strains and mutations placed on inbred genetic backgrounds. We developed the automatable tube cooccupancy test (TCOT) based on propinquity, the tendency of freely mobile rodents to maintain close physical proximity, and assessed TCOT behavior on a variety of genotypes and social and environmental conditions.