Fig. 6. Selective ablation of the parapineal in flh:GFP transgenic embryos. (A-D) Integrity of the parapineal before and after laser-mediated cell ablation. (A) The pineal anlage and parapineal can be recognized by their specific fluorescent labeling in 30 h Tg(flh:eGFP) embryos, and (C) visualized by Nomarski optics (black arrowhead; parapineal). The parapineal was destroyed by laser pulses, as evidenced by (B) the loss of fluorescence and (D) abnormal morphology immediately after ablation. Cell death was not observed in neighboring regions after the laser treatment. (E-H) As a control, an equal number of cells were destroyed to the right of the pineal organ (white arrowhead in H), but the parapineal was left intact (black arrowhead in G and H). Scale bar: 25 µm.