Figure 1.

Wallerian degeneration in wild-type axons and preservation in Wld^S. Injured wild-type axons (middle row) exhibit granular disintegration of the cytoskeleton seen in electron microscopy (left column) and fragmentation visualized by fluorescence microscopy (middle and right columns). Cytoskeletal integrity, unswollen mitochondria, and axon continuity are preserved by the Wld^S gene in each case (bottom row). Note the remarkable consistency of Wallerian degeneration and the neuroprotective Wld^S phenotype between mice and Drosophila. ORN, olfactory receptor neuron. Left column from Brown et al. (1994); reprinted with permission from Wiley-Blackwell. Middle column from Conforti et al. (2007b); reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd., Nature Publishing Group.