Figure 4.

Neuronal expression of pathological mutant Dspastin K467R and Dspastin RNAi affect synaptic morphology in a comparable fashion. (A) Larval NMJ at muscles 6/7, identified by HRP immunocytochemistry (red; left panels). Neural expression of Dspastin K467R in a wild-type background caused a reduction of the synaptic area and arborization compared with controls (Elav-Gal4/+ and UAS-Dspastin-K467R/+). NMJs were also labeled with anti-synaptotagmin antibody (Syt) to provide an alternative means of measuring synaptic area (green; middle panels). Merged images are shown at right. Scale bars: approximately 20 μM. (B and C) Quantification of the data using results of both HRP (B) and synaptotagmin (C) staining shows that the observed decrease in synaptic area was statistically significant and similar to that detected in NMJs expressing Dspastin RNAi. *P < 0.0001.