Fig. 1

Organization of the adult zebrafish inner ear. (A) Scheme of an adult zebrafish inner ear showing all sensory epithelia (in red). The three main macula are the utricule (u), the saccule (s) and the lagena (l), the fourth, smaller one, is the macula neglecta (mn); the three crista of the semi-circular canals are the anterior cristae (ac), the lateral cristae (lc), and the posterior cristae (pc). (B–C) Micro-dissected adult zebrafish inner ear. Whole adult inner ear showing the localization of the three main macula and of the three crista, as well as innervation of the anterior cristae (B) (note that the semi-circular canals were partially broken during hand dissection). Detail of the anterior portion of the inner ear, showing the anterior and the lateral crista together with the innervation of the lateral cristae (C). (D) Schematic representation of a cristae ampullaris with a cross section at one extremity of the cristae; the colors used in this scheme correspond to the colors shown in immunofluorescence experiments (hair cell body, kinocilium and stereocilia are depicted in green, blue, and red, respectively ; ampullary nerves are shown in blue). (E–F) Sensory patches of the anterior part of the inner ear. The anterior and lateral crista and the utricular maculae depicted here were stained with rhodamine–phalloidin and microphotographed using Nomarski optics (E) or a red fluorescence filter (F). The lateral cristae is shown longitudinally and the anterior cristae transversally.