Figure 5.

The Looptail mutation disrupts the maintenance, but not the early asymmetric localization, of Pk2. A, B, At E14.5, before maturation of the stereocilia bundle is evident with phalloidin (red), Pk2 (green) is localized to one edge of developing hair cells in wild-type and Looptail mutants. However, this localization is not coordinated between adjacent cells in mutant tissue (B). C, D, Similarly, at E16.5 Pk2 localization differs between wild-type (C) and Looptail mutant (D) hair cells labeled with α-spectrin (red). In Looptail, the distribution is symmetric and appears to surround individual hair cells. E, F, At E18.5 the Pk2 (green) is enriched at the medial edge of wild-type utricular hair cells (E). In contrast, the Pk2 crescents are disrupted in Looptail mutant hair cells (F), which also are misoriented relative to each other. B′, D′, F′, Gray scale images of the distribution of Pk2 corresponding to B, D, F. Scale bars, 5 μm.