Fig. 5. Specification of a subset of DRG neurons fails in sox10
mutants. (A-C) Whole mount in situ hybridisation of 36 hpf
wild-type (A) and sox10 mutant (B) embryos for ngn1.
Quantitation (mean+s.d., C) showed highly significant reduction in mutants
(*** P<0.0001; Student's t-test; n=15
for both data sets). (D-F) Injection of sox10 morpholino (MO;
E), but not 3 bp-mismatch morpholino (MM; D), into ngn1:gfp
transgenic fish results in reduction of both melanophores (left panels) and
DRG sensory neuron precursors (arrowheads, right panels) at 48 hpf. Mismatch
morpholino-injected embryos are indistinguishable from uninjected embryos.
Quantification (mean+s.d., F) showed highly significant effect in
sox10 morphants (*** P<0.0001; ANOVA with
Tukey's Post Test; n=22 for sox10 MO, n=20 for both
sox10 MM and uninjected data sets). Numbers of GFP+ cells
(F) are slightly greater than numbers of ngn1+ cells (C)
consistent with the later stage examined and perdurance of GFP in cells in
which the promoter is no longer active. (G-I) Ngn1 knock down using a
previously characterised morpholino in sox10 mutant embryos results
in near-complete loss of escaper DRG sensory neurons, even in the trunk (H),
compared with uninjected sox10 mutants (G). This reduction was highly
significant (I) (*** P<0.0001; Student's
t-test) (n=16 for each data set). Scale bars: 20 µm in
A,B; 50 µm in G,H; 100 µm in D,E.