Fig. 3

Knock-down of zf12-LO leads to abnormal development of the head and tail as well as yolk sac and pericardial edema. (A) Two MOs, one complementary to the region of the ATG site blocking translation (MO-1) and another corresponding to the end of exon-2/ start of intron-2/3 blocking the correct splicing of exon-2 (MO-2) were designed. The exons of the zf12-LO gene, encoding the zf12-LO protein, are shown in black boxes and the 5′UTR and 3′UTR regions are marked with white boxes (not drawn to scale). Embryos were visualized by regular light microscopy at one dpf (B-D) and two dpf (E-I). Wild type (B) as well as MO-1 mis treated embryos (D) developed normally whereas injection of MO-1 (C) resulted in retarded development of the head (arrowhead) and a bent tail (arrow) already after one dpf. The phenotype was more pronounced in MO-1 morphants at two dpf (F). The head was less developed (arrowhead), the tail was strongly bent (arrow) and pericardial edema as well as edema around the yolk sac appeared (asterisk). A similar phenotype was observed in MO-2 treated embryos at two dpf (H). In contrast, WT (E) as well as embryos treated with MO-1 mis and MO-2 mis (G and I) developed normally. Animals shown are representative embryos for the indicated time points.