Figure 2

Overexpression of miR-183 causes cardia bifida in zebrafish. (A,B) Fluorescence images of the heart of 48 hpf Tg (cmlc2: eGFP) transgenic zebrafish embryos (ventral view). (A) Control embryos showing a normal fused tubular heart, (B) Embryos injected with miR-183 mimic exhibit cardia bifida (white arrow heads indicate two separate cardiac primordia). (C) Quantification of cardia bifida phenotype in miR-183 OE embryos. (D–G) Whole-mount in situ hybridization detection of cmlc2 (D,D’), vmhc (E,E’), gata4 (F,F’), and nppa (G,G’) expression in 48 hpf control and miR-183 OE embryos (ventral view; red arrow heads indicate two separate cardiac primordia). (H) RT-qPCR analysis of the mRNA expression levels of cardiac developmental genes at 42 hpf miR-183 OE embryos compared to wild-type. The numbers in the lower right corner indicate the number of embryos. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.