Fig. 5

miR-153 regulates the morphology and structure of motor neurons.

(A) A transgenic zebrafish line, Tg(mnx1:TagRFP-T), that expresses RFP in motor neurons was used to monitor the effects of altered levels of miR-153 and snap-25 at 55 hpf. For all confocal images, developing motor neurons were examined from the same somites, as indicated. (B) Morphology of developing motor neurons under each of the indicated conditions. Arrows indicate increased branching after knockdown miR-153 (miR-153^MO) or overexpression snap-25a,b mRNA. Arrowheads indicate the structural defects after miR-153 overexpression or knockdown of snap-25a,b (snap-25a,b^MO). Scale bar: 20 µm. (C) Quantification of motor neuron axonal branch number under the different conditions shown in (B). Error bars show s.e.m. Significance was determined using ANOVA with Dunnett’s post-test, n = 5. *, p<0.01; **, p<0.005. (D) Quantification of motor neuron axon length relative to uninjected control under the different conditions shown in (B). Error bars show s.e.m. ANOVA with Dunnett’s post-test, n = 5. *, p<0.05; **, p<0.01.