Figure 4

Figure 4

PAAm bead microinjection into zebrafish embryos. (a) Schematic illustration of the microinjection and imaging procedures. The embryo was immobilized in an agarose mold to facilitate upward orientation of the animal pole for microinjection. PLL-Cy3 PAAm beads were injected at the bud stage of zebrafish development (10 hpf). For confocal imaging of cell-force-induced bead deformations, the embryo was embedded in 1% low melting agarose. (b) PAAm bead trapped between the left and right side of a uniformly opened neural rod (nr) in the region of the midbrain-hindbrain boundary (mhb) of a zebrafish embryo at prim-15 stage (30 hpf). Developing eyes (e) and structures of the central nervous system are recognizable. Anterior (A) - posterior (P) direction is marked in the image. Scale bar, 200 µm; the PLL-Cy3 PAAm beads are magenta colored and the cell membranes are GFP-labeled (green).