Fig. 4

Fig. 4 TUNEL of ncad and nok mutant retinas at 30 and 48 hpf. (A–D) Labeling with ath5:GFP (green) and TUNEL (red) of 30 hpf retinas in ncad (B) and nok (D) mutants and their wild-type siblings (A and C). All nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (white) (A and B). (E–H) Labeling with ath5:GFP (green) and TUNEL (red) of 48 hpf retinas in ncad (F) and nok (H) mutants and their wild-type siblings (E and G). (I and J) Histogram of number of TUNEL-positive cells per sectioned retina in ncad and nok mutants (blue circles) and their wild-type siblings (red circles) at 30 hpf (I) and 48 hpf (J). Each circle represents the average number of TUNEL-positive cells per sectioned retina for a single embryo, which was calculated using six sections prepared from both the left and right eyes. Means (short horizontal bars) and standard deviations (vertical bars) were calculated using six different embryos. The number of TUNEL-positive cells per sectioned retina vary in the nok mutant retinas at 48 hpf, and the difference between the nok mutant and its wild-type sibling retinas was p = 0.078 for Student’s t-test and p = 0.026 for the Mann–Whitney test. Although the difference was not found to be significant by Student’s t-test (p > 0.05), the level of apoptosis seems to be higher in nok mutant retina than in the wild type at 48 hpf. There is no significant difference between the ncad mutant and its wild-type sibling retinas at 30 and 48 hpf, and between nok mutant and its wild-type sibling retinas at 30 hpf (Student’s t-test, p > 0.05).