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Fig. 1 DNA-binding domain deletion of vsx genes affect neural retina formation and disrupt VBA reflex. (a) CRISPR/Cas9 DNA editing tool was used to generate deletions (green box) in the highly conserved DBD from vsx1 (top) and vsx2 (bottom) TFs. Blue boxes represent gene exons, black boxes the location of sgRNAs used to guide Cas9 endonuclease and primers for screening are depicted as opposing arrowheads. b-d and f-h. Histological sections stained with nuclear marker DAPI and phalloidin-Alexa488 for actin filaments from WT (b-d, n≥8) and vsxKO central retinas (f-h, n≥10) at 48hpf (b, f), 72hpf (c, g) and 6dpf (d, h). (e, i). Head dorsal view from 6dpf WT (e) and vsxKO (i) larvae with insets showing their pigmentation pattern (white arrowhead). ONL: outer nuclear layer, INL: inner nuclear layer, GCL: ganglion cell layer, hpf: hours post-fertilization, dpf: days post-fertilization. Scale bar in (b-d) and (f-h): 50 µm, scale bar in e and i: 500 µm.