Fig. 3

The mats1 gene is required for normal development of zebrafish embryos. (A-C″) 24 hpf embryos of a transgenic line 1040 whose CNS is marked by GFP. Bright-field images in (A-C). Fluorescent images of the same embryos shown in (A′ -C″). Lateral view in (A-C′). Ventral view in (A″-C″). “Severe” represents mats1 MO2 morphants which showed severe developmental delay, while “mild” represents those showed a weaker developmental delay phenotype. At 24 hpf, some neurons in trunk (indicate by long arrow) had already emerged in wild-type embryos, but they were not observed in mats1 MO2 morphants. Eyes (indicated by short arrow) were either not visible (B″) or less developed (C″) in mats1 MO2 morphants. Similarly, the brain (indicate by arrow head) was less developed in mats1 MO2 morphants (B″,C″). (D-F′) Embryos at 3.5 hpf. mats1 MO2 morphants show developmental delay at very early stage. Lateral view with anterior towards left in (D-F). Top view to see animal pole in (D′-F′). mats1 MO2 morphant embryos had fewer but bigger cells (F,F′) compared to wild-type embryos (D,D′) and embryos injected with MO Ctl (E,E′), suggesting that mats1 MO2 morphant cells divided less than control cells during the same period of time.