Adult atoh7 mutants display a dark body pigmentation and growth retardation. (A) Scheme of the modified raising strategy to obtain adult mutant animals. Mutants and wildtype/heterozygous siblings are separated according to their phenotype at 1 wpf (see Supplementary Fig. S1) and raised under the same conditions. Until 8 wpf, animals are kept in 200 mL beakers with manual water exchange every other day and exclusively fed with paramecia. At 8 wpf, animals are transferred into mouse cages and additionally fed with artemia. At 12 wpf, mouse cages are connected to the system. Feeding of paramecia is terminated and more and more complemented with dry food, in addition to paramecia. By 16 wpf, the animals are exclusively fed with dry food and moved to tanks. (B) Quantification of the survival of wildtype/heterozygous versus mutant fish revealed a lower survival rate of mutant animals. (C) Adult mutants (6 months post fertilization) are characterized by a darker pigmentation as well as a reduced body length. (D) Quantification of the body size revealed a significantly reduced length of mutants compared to wildtype and heterozygous siblings. Scale bars represent 5 mm. Statistics: all data are represented as mean ± SD, 1-way ANOVA with Tukey's multiple comparison test, *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001, or ****P < 0.0001. wpf, weeks post fertilization.
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