Fig. 2. The kar phenotype arises during metamorphosis.
Developmental series of body pigment pattern metamorphosis of wild-type (A–D), kar (E–H) and rsetLF802 mutant fish (I–L). Posterior trunk regions at the level of dorsal and anal fins are shown. The series of wild type and strong rse were published by Frohnhöfer et al. (Frohnhöfer et al., 2013). At stages PB and PR, kar mutants show only slight reductions in iridophore numbers (compare panels A,B to panels E,F), they still form a continuous sheet just ventral to the horizontal myoseptum. From PR to SP however, this reduction of iridophores becomes more apparent. They do not extend properly into dorsal and ventral interstripe regions (compare panel C and panel G), occasionally, remnants or patches develop (interstripe X1V in panel H). From stage SP onwards the number of melanophores is reduced compared to wild type (compare panels C,D to panels G,H). The early phase of pigment pattern development of strong rse mutants is similar to kar, with slightly stronger reductions in iridophores (I,J). In contrast to kar, however, iridophores do not form dense ridges in interstripe regions and rather are dispersed (K,L). ao: aorta. Scale bars: 250 µm.