FIGURE 4

Vgll4a acts upstream of yap activity to promote embryonic growth. (A) Schematic representation of the experimental design in (B). (B) Box plots of the body length from wt, MZvgll4l, MZvgll4a and MZvgll4a;MZvgll4b embryos grown in the presence of verteporfin or DMSO. Note that the drug has no effect on the already reduced body length of MZvgll4a and MZvgll4a;MZvgll4b larvae but reduces that of wt and MZvgll4l larvae. T-test. wt, p < 0.0001; MZvgll4l, p = 0.0003; MZvgll4a, p = 0.5769 and MZvgll4a;MZvgll4b, p = 0.9744. (C) The graphs show the expression level of the Yap-TEAD transcriptional target ccn1 at sphere and 75% epiboly stage in wt and MZvgll4a embryos as determined by qRT-PCR analysis. Note the significant reduction of ccn1 expression in the mutants. T-test. At 4hpf, p = 0.0042 and at 8hpf, p = 0.0746. (D) Schematic representation of the experimental design of data reported in (E,F). (E) YAP mRNA injection rescues epiboly progression in MZvgll4a embryos to an extend similar to that of wt embryos whereas eGFP mRNA has no effect. Kruskal–Wallis test, p < 0.0001. wt vs. MZvgll4a mRNA YAP injected, p > 0.9999. (F) MZvgll4a embryos injected with YAP mRNA display a larvae body length larger than MZvgll4a embryos injected with control mRNA. One-Way ANOVA, p < 0.0001. Ns, not significant. **p < 0.01. ***p < 0.001. ****p < 0.0001.