Fig. 6

Protocadherin-19 is required for early stages of morphogenesis in the anterior neural plate. A–C, Transmitted light images of live control and morphant embryos at 10–11 somite stage. Disruption of morphogenesis in the head is already disrupted. A–A″. In control embryos (injected with Mo-S1mis), the brain appears smooth in lateral views (A) and as a featureless rod in dorsal views (A′), as well as in face-on views (A″). The neural rod is highlighted with red shading. In morphant embryos, the brain is disorganized and the neural rod has the appearance of being misfolded or buckled (B, C) and the optic primordia are often malformed. In dorsal views, the neural rod is very disorganized and is much wider than control embryos (B′, C′). In face-on views, the neural rod is split, having a Y-shaped appearance (B″, C″). D–G, Shown are cross sections of 4 somite (D, E) and 10 somite (F, G) stage embryos that were labeled with DAPI. At 4 somite stage, the neural keel is wedge-shaped in the trunk and broader in both the posterior and anterior brain regions. The neural keel is comparable in morphant embryos (E–E″; Mo-S1), although it tends to be somewhat wider. At 10 somite stage, the neural keel of wild type embryos has converged at all levels along the antero-posterior axis (F–F″). In contrast, the neural keel in morphants (G–G″) has failed to converge in the posterior brain and appears disorganized in the anterior brain, although the trunk appears normal.