(Downloading may take up to 30 seconds.
If the slide opens in your browser, select File -> Save As to save it.)
Click on image to view larger version.

Fig. 1. The V-ATPase is required for tail regeneration in Xenopus.
When amputated at st. 41 (A), the Xenopus laevis larva
(n>1000) rapidly rebuilds a tail (A'). Regeneration,
but not anterior development, primary tail growth or wound healing, is
abolished by specific inhibition of the V-ATPase H+ pump
(n=226) by concanamycin treatment immediately after cutting
(B; close-up shown in B'). Blue lines in A-B'
indicate approximate amputation plane. This inhibition of regeneration is not
due to an upregulation of apoptosis, as concanamycin-treated tails (C)
do not show a greater degree of staining for the apoptosis marker activated
Caspase-3 than controls (D) when processed at 48 hpa. When the
dominant-negative V-ATPase E subunit is expressed in tails, regeneration is
not observed (E, compare with B', n=66), while otherwise
normal development continues. For statistical analyses, see Table S2 in the
supplementary material. (F-H) We attempted to rescue the
V-ATPase-inhibited phenotype with misexpression of a single-subunit
concanamycin-insensitive H+ pump, PMA. (F-F'')
Immunohistochemistry with antibody to PMA. Larvae were microinjected with PMA
construct+GFP at the 1-cell stage, and sorted at tailbud or later stages for
GFP expression in the tail. (F) Negative control larva injected with
ß-gal and probed with PMA antibody, showing no signal. (F')
Positive staining in regeneration bud confirms that injected constructs lead
to robust levels of expression in the tail during regeneration when mRNA is
injected at 1-cell stage. (F'') Close-up of PMA-expressing cells
demonstrating the predicted cell-membrane localization of H+ pump
(red arrows). Scale bar: 50 µm in panel F''. (G,G') Such
expression of the PMA pump is sufficient to rescue regeneration after V-ATPase
inhibition by concanamycin. (G) Tails of larvae injected with PMA at the
1-cell stage, amputated at st. 41, and then incubated in concanamycin
regenerate (compare with phenotype in B'). Newly regenerated tissue is
indicated by the blue bracket. (G') Normal neuronal pattern revealed by
immunohistochemistry. (H) Quantification of rescue effect. Abrogation of
regeneration (red bars) can be largely prevented by misexpression of PMA (dark
yellow bars, n=127), demonstrating the necessity for the
H+ flux during regeneration (off-white bars, no treatment; green
bars, PMA injection only).