Fig. 1

lte mutant zebrafish larvae have a collapsed ear at 5 dpf and an increased swim bladder volume. (A-D) Live images of lte^to27d homozygous mutant (B,D) and phenotypically wild-type sibling (sib) (A,C) embryos at 5 dpf. (E) Ear collapse in the tg414b allele at 5 dpf is slightly more severe than in to27d. (F-I) Acridine Orange staining (green) indicates that there is no increase in cell death in the ear (white dashed outline) in lte mutants as compared with siblings at 5 dpf (F,H compared with G,I). Background staining in live neuromasts can be seen in both genotypes (green spots). (J-M) FITC-phalloidin (green)/propidium iodide (red) staining reveals similar architecture and number of cells within the otic epithelium of tg414b and siblings at 5 dpf. (L,M) Enlargement of the ventral pillar (white asterisks in J,K). (N,O) Live images showing the increase in swim bladder volume in lte^to27d mutants. (P) The average swim bladder length increases from 390 μm in sibling embryos to 418 μm in the mutants (n=12 siblings, n=12 mutants; P=0.03, Student′s t-test). Horizontal lines indicate the distribution of swim bladder lengths; vertical lines indicate the population mean; boxes indicate standard deviation. asc, anterior semicircular canal; psc, posterior semicircular canal; usc, utriculosaccular chamber. Scale bars: 125 μm in A,B; 50 μm in C-E,H-K; 200 μm in F,G; 100 μm in N,O.