Fig. 5. Microridge formation coincides with actin and Ezrin organization.

a Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that microridges form at stage 26, and continued to increase in complexity towards stage 40, when cilia start to retract (scale bars, 1 µm). b Ezrin, labeled with GFP, follows the organization of actin bundles that surround the basal bodies, labeled by BFP-Centrin in the merged image (scale bars, 5 µm). c Correlation between SEM and phalloidin (red)-label actin filaments revealed that the actin bundles observed in the apical actin layer follow the microridges detected by SEM (scale bars, 1 µm). d High-resolution confocal imaging reveals that actin bundles (phalloidin, red) arising from the anterior rootlet, connect to FERM-labeled microridges. Images were obtained at stage 29-30.