Fig. 6

Fig. 6 The rods increase and the INL cells decrease in number in the adult els mutant. (A) Number of rods within 100 μm length along the line parallel to the ONL in wild-type (red bars) and els mutant (blue bars) at 6 (left) and 12 mpf (right). The averages and standard deviations are 37.6 ± 10.7 for the wild-type at 6 mpf (n = 5), 63.3 ± 5.3 for the els mutant at 6 mpf (n = 5), 46.8 ± 8.5 for the wild-type at 12 mpf (n = 4) and 47.0 ± 3.7 for the els mutant at 12 mpf (n = 4). (B) Number of INL cells within 100 μm length along the line parallel to the ONL in wild-type (red bars) and els mutant (blue bars) at 6 (left) and 12 mpf (right). The averages and standard deviations are 156.0 ± 31.0 for the wild-type at 6 mpf (n = 5), 112.2 ± 18.3 for the els mutant at 6 mpf (n = 5), 76.0 ± 19.8 for the wild-type at 12 mpf (n = 4) and 51.8 ± 3.4 for the els mutant at 12 mpf (n = 4). (C) Ratio of the number of rods to the number of INL cells in wild-type (red bars) and els mutant (blue bars) at 6 (left) and 12 mpf (right). The averages and standard deviations are 25.7 ± 12.4 for the wild-type at 6 mpf (n = 5), 58.3 ± 6.1 for the els mutant at 6 mpf (n = 5), 64.4 ± 19.6 for the wild-type at 12 mpf (n = 4) and 91.0 ± 7.4 for the els mutant at 12 mpf (n = 4). (D, E) BrdU labeling of wild-type (D) and els mutant (E) retinas at 5 wpf. Retinal plexiform layers are visualized by counterstaining with phalloidine. In the wild-type retinas, BrdU is observed not only in the CMZ (D, asterisk) but also in the cells scattered within the ONL (D, arrowheads), which appear to be rod progenitors. In the els mutant retinas, BrdU incorporation is also observed in the cells located in the INL (E, arrows), which is rarely observed in the wild-type retinas. (F) Density of BrdU-positive cells in the INL and ONL of the wild-type and els mutant retinas at 5 wpf. The number of eyes examined was four for both the wild-type and els mutant. BrdU incorporation in the INL is markedly higher in the els mutant than in the wild-type larvae (p = 1.9 x 10^-5, t-test), suggesting that cell proliferation is activated in the INL of the els mutant. In the case of the ONL, BrdU incorporation is also higher in the els mutant than in the wild-type larvae (p = 0.043, t-test), suggesting that rod progenitor cells increase in number in the els mutant.