Fig. S1

gdf6a mutants exhibit microphthalmia independently of cell death. (A) Lateral views of wild-type (top row) and gdf6a^u768 mutant (lower row) eyes showing apoptotic cells between 24 hpf - 36 hpf. No obvious difference in numbers is apparent between wild-type and mutants (p≥0.07 for all time points; n≥10 embryos per stage per genotype). (B) Left: lateral views showing apoptotic cells (purple) wildtype (top) and gdf6a^u900 mutant eyes. Right: Graph showing that the elevated number of TUNEL+ cells (blue) in gdf6a^u900 mutant eyes at 32 hpf (bottom image) is reduced to near wild-type levels by incubating embryos with 400 µM Z-VAD-FMK caspase inhibitor from 14 hpf - 31 hpf (**Student’s t-test, p<0.05; n ≥ 5 embryos per genotype; NS, no significant difference). (C) Graph showing that gdf6a^u900 mutants exhibit significantly smaller eyes than their siblings at 3 dpf independently of Z-VAD-FMK treatment (n≥7 embryos; NS, no significant difference). (D) Graph showing that both alleles of gdf6a are associated with smaller eyes, with gdf6a^u900 mutant eyes smaller than those in gdf6a^u768 mutants (***Student’s t-test, p<0.0001; n≥5 embryos).