Fig. 8. Lens differentiation is perturbed in pac^–/– embryos. (A) The developing lens. Proliferating apical epithelial cells (yellow) move to the equatorial zone (orange) where they start to differentiate as lens fiber cells. The apical and basal ends of the elongating lens fiber cells (green) migrate medially along the apical surface of proliferative epithelium (yellow) and basal lens capsule, respectively. The thinning fiber cells consequently cover the core of older lens fibers (blue) like the layers of an onion. The arrow indicates the progression of lens fiber cell maturation. (B,C) Plastic sections of 3-day-old wild-type (B) and pac^fr7 lens (C). In pac the apical proliferating cells are irregularly shaped and cells on the basal side of the lens do not display the elongate morphology of differentiating lens fibers (red arrows). Red asterisk indicates degenerated lens fibers. (D-G) Wild-type (D,F) and pac^fr7 (E,G) lenses labeled with BODIPY-ceramide. (D,E) Thirty-one hpf lens. Cuboidal proliferating cells form a superficial single layer on the lens surface. Differentiating cells are forming at the equatorial zone and elongating (red circles) in both wild-type and pac^fr7 lenses. (F,G) Forty-eight hpf lens. In wild type, lens fibers have differentiated (red circles), whereas they fail to elongate (red arrows) and remain on the basal side of the lens in pac mutants (white asterisk).

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