Fig. 7

Bmp7b expression is reduced in sox11 morphants.

(A) QPCR was performed on mRNA from control and sox11 morphant heads at 24 hpf for known repressors of shha transcription. A significant downregulation of bmp7b was observed in sox11 morphants compared to controls. Relative transcript abundance was normalized to gapdh levels and is presented as the mean fold-change in expression relative to controls (n = 50 embryos per group, 3 independent biological repeats). **p<0.01, Student′s t –test. (B) Injection of bmp7b mRNA significantly reduced the proportion of sox11 morphants displaying abnormal lens and coloboma phenotypes at 24 hpf and 2 dpf, respectively. Number of embryos analyzed: 24 hpf control MO, n = 127; 2 dpf control MO, n = 123; 24 hpf sox11 MO, n = 282; 2 dpf sox11 MO, n = 274; 24 hpf bmp7b mRNA, n = 95; 2 dpf bmp7b mRNA, n = 91; 24 hpf sox11 MO + bmp7b mRNA, n = 140, 2 dpf sox11 MO + bmp7b mRNA, n = 134; 3 independent biological replicates. *p<0.006. (C) Brightfield images of a representative sox11 morphant and a sox11 morphant rescued with bmp7b mRNA, taken from the set of embryos analyzed in (B). D, dorsal; V, ventral; A, anterior; P, posterior; hpf, hours post fertilization; dpf, days post fertilization; MO, morpholino.