Fig. 1

Characterization of the neb (sa906) mutant zebrafish strain. a & b) At 4 dpf neb^−/− zebrafish (aii) appear smaller in size and (bii) display a loss of birefringence compared to their wildtype siblings (ai & bi). c) RT-PCR analysis in and neb^−/− mutant embryos at 2 dpf shows a reduction in neb mRNA levels compared to wildtype siblings (sibling). βAct was used as a positive control. d) ii) neb^−/− mutants display a smaller eye, brain region (B) and deflated swim bladder (SB) compared to their i) wildtype siblings. e) Quantification of the maximum acceleration recorded from touch-evoked response assays of neb^−/− fish compared to wildtype siblings at 2 dpf. Error bars represent mean±SEM for three independent experiments (n = 11,9,12 neb ^−/− , 55,25,32 neb ^+/− , 18,13,12 neb ^+/+ zebrafish per experiment), **p < 0.01. f & g) Quantification of the normalized (f) distance and (g) speed travelled by neb^−/− mutants compared to wildtype siblings at 6 dpf. For f) error bars represent median±interquartile range for three independent experiments (for n = 19,23,19 neb ^−/− , 41,42,36 neb ^+/− , 31,20,21 neb ^+/+ zebrafish). For g) error bars represent mean±SEM range (for n = 19,23,14 neb ^−/− , 41,42,36 neb ^+/− , 30,20,21 neb ^+/+ zebrafish per experiment). *p < 0.5, **** p < 0.001