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Fig. 2
Altered cardiac natriuretic expression changes heart growth in vivo. (A) Morpholino knockdown of Nppa or Nppb in isolation or simultaneously. Heart enlargement was seen in the Nppa/Nppb double knockdown embryos but was absent in single knockdown morphants (72 hpf). (B) Inducible Gal4/UAS transactivator system to overexpress nppb in vivo. (C) The nppb overexpression embryos (HS/nppb) had a large reduction of pericardial fluid volume (magnified panel, red line details normal pericardial border) but overall embryonic growth was minimally altered (72 hpf). (D) The cmlc2/CFP fluorescent marker was utilized to visualize the chamber dimensions better in control (HS/-) and nppb overexpression (HS/nppb) embryos (48 hpf). The ventricular and atrial sizes were both reduced in nppb overexpression embryos. Red fluorescent marker in lens denotes UAS/nppb carrier status. A, atrium; V, ventricle. Scale bars: 200 μm.