Figure 6.

TH-positive neurons in PPa are necessary for social behavior. A–A’’, Maximum projection of the PPa of 14 dpf Tg(galanin:GFP) larvae immunolabeled for GFP (green) and TH (magenta) revealed two distinct populations. Dorsal view of cyan box in Figure 5E, anterior to the top. B–B’’, Maximum projection of PPa of 14 dpf Et ^y405 larvae immunolabeled for GFP (green) and TH (magenta) revealed transgene expression in ∼30% of TH-positive neurons (yellow asterisks). Scale bars: 20 μm. C, Violin plots of SI for Et ^y405 larvae with nitroreductase-ablated neurons at 16 dpf (magenta) revealed significant differences compared with control larvae only expressing GFP (green). Both groups were treated with nifurpirinol. N = 2 experiments, n = 60 animals, *p < 0.001, t test comparisons to GFP control. Plots of average speed in pixels per second (D) and thigmotaxis index (E) during biological-motion based assays at 4.0 mm dot size revealed no general behavioral deficits for larvae with Et ^y405 neurons ablated. N = 2 experiments, n = 60 animals, p > 0.5. Error bars are SEM.