Fig. 6

Ectopic expression of nk2.2 in the optic primordia of shh/vhh-1-injected embryos correlates with impaired eye development. (A-D) Whole-mount 22-24h shh/vhh-1-injected embryos hybridised with antisense RNA to nk2.2. (A,B) Lateral views showing ectopic nk2.2 expression throughout the optic primordia. (A) Focussed at the level of the eye and (B) focussed through the eye and onto the brain. The white arrowhead indicates the normal position of the optic stalk and the arrow indicates the dorsocaudal limit of fusion of the optic primordia to the brain. (C) Ventral view of an shh/vhh-1-injected embryo with ectopic nk2.2 expression in the anterior part of the optic primordia. (D) Frontal view of an shh/vhh-1-injected embryo with nk2.2 expression throughout the optic primordia. (E,F) Dorsal (E) and frontal (F) views of nk2.2 expression in normal 22-26 somites (20-22h) embryos. (G-H) Eye morphology in living normal (G) and shh/vhh-1-injected (H,I) 30h embryos. The lens is reduced in H and absent in I. Ventrorostral eye development and pigment formation is affected in both embryos. Abbreviations: cf, cephalic flexure; ch, choroid fissure; hy, hypothalamus; l, lens; mb, midbrain; mdb, mid-diencephalic boundary; nr, neural retina; op, optic primodia; or, optic recess; os, optic stalk; pe, pigment epithelium; pnr, presumptive neural retina; ppe, presumptive pigment epithelial layer; se, surface ectoderm; t, telencephalon. Scale bar: A-F=100 μm, G-I=50 μm.