Fig. 3. IFT morphant phenotype: kidney cysts and hydrocephalus. Disruption of
polaris function by injection of polarisAUG (B) and
polarisSP (C,I) results in hydrocephalus (black arrowhead),
pronephric cyst formation (arrow), pericardial edema (white arrowhead), and
ventrally bent body axis at 72 hpf compared with non-injected control embryos
(A). This phenotype imitates the oval homozygous mutant (H), in which
the polaris gene is mutated. Heterozygous embryos are
indistinguishable from wild-type controls (G). Embryos injected with the
control hippiAUG mismatch morpholino have a normal morphology (D),
whereas hippiAUG (E) and hippiSP (F) cause a phenotype
similar to the polaris morphants and the oval homozygous
mutant. (J) Wild-type embryo in longitudinal section. (K) hippiSP
morphant embryo showing severe hydrocephalus (**) and kidney cyst
(*). (L) hippiSP morphant embryo showing axis curvature,
cysts (arrow) and hydrocephalus (arrowhead). (M) Histological cross sections
of a 72 hpf control embryo show the midline fused glomerulus, pronephric
tubules and pronephric ducts on either side. (N,O) hippiSP morphant
embryos at 72 hpf show a cystic dilatation (*) of the pronephric
tubules with a stretched glomerulus in the midline. (O) polarisAUG
morphants show kidney cysts (*) and distension of the pronephric
ducts. gl, glomerulus; pd, pronephric ducts; pt, pronephric tubules.