Apoptosis is increased in lama1UW1 mutant embryos but is not the underlying cause of morphogenesis defects.
(A-A”) Control embryos show little apoptotic cell death. (B-B”) lama1UW1 mutant embryos contain a significant number of dying cells. (C-C”) Injection of Bcl-xL RNA (100 pg) rescues apoptosis in lama1UW1 mutant embryos, however optic cup morphogenesis defects are still apparent.
(A,B,C) Antibody staining for activated caspase-3. (A’,B’,C’) TOPRO-3 counterstain for nuclei. (A”, B”, C”) Merged images. dashed blue line, boundary of optic cup. Dorsal views; scale bar, 50 µm. br, brain; nr, neural retina; le, lens. A, anterior; P, posterior; M, medial; L, lateral.