Fig. 1

Characterization of the neb (sa906) mutant zebrafish strain. a & b) At 4 dpf neb^?/? zebrafish (aii) appear smaller in size and (bii) display a loss of birefringence compared to their wildtype siblings (ai & bi). c) RT-PCR analysis in and neb^?/? mutant embryos at 2 dpf shows a reduction in neb mRNA levels compared to wildtype siblings (sibling). ?Act was used as a positive control. d) ii) neb^?/? mutants display a smaller eye, brain region (B) and deflated swim bladder (SB) compared to their i) wildtype siblings. e) Quantification of the maximum acceleration recorded from touch-evoked response assays of neb^?/? fish compared to wildtype siblings at 2 dpf. Error bars represent mean±SEM for three independent experiments (n =?11,9,12 neb ^?/? , 55,25,32 neb ^+/? , 18,13,12 neb ^+/+ zebrafish per experiment), **p <?0.01. f & g) Quantification of the normalized (f) distance and (g) speed travelled by neb^?/? mutants compared to wildtype siblings at 6 dpf. For f) error bars represent median±interquartile range for three independent experiments (for n =?19,23,19 neb ^?/? , 41,42,36 neb ^+/? , 31,20,21 neb ^+/+ zebrafish). For g) error bars represent mean±SEM range (for n?=?19,23,14 neb ^?/? , 41,42,36 neb ^+/? , 30,20,21 neb ^+/+ zebrafish per experiment). *p <?0.5, **** p <?0.001