Figure 5.

Pharmacological inhibition of retinoic acid synthesis in zebrafish embryos. Treatment of zebrafish embryos with a retinoic acid inhibitor, citral dimethyl acetal, has a dose-dependent effect on eye development, producing microphthalmic zebrafish. A: The x-axis represents the concentration of citral dimethyl acetal and the y-axis denotes the ratio of eye area to head height. Measurements were taken 3 days post fertilization. The embryos were treated during early eye development at the 6- (blue) or 11- (red) somite stage. P-values ≤0.05 are denoted by a *. Unless otherwise stated, n=5. B, C, D: Representative images of an untreated, moderately affected and severely affected zebrafish respectively at 3 days post fertilisation. E, F, G: Representative images of an unaffected, moderately affected and severely affected zebrafish respectively following treatment with citral dimethyl acetal. The images were taken at 5 days post fertilisation. H, I, J: Images of a wild type zebrafish eye and a moderate and severe retinal pigment epithelium coloboma respectively after inhibition of retinoic acid synthesis.