Figure 6. Cryosectioned lenses at 3 and 4 dpf were stained with DAPI to assess the clearance of fiber cell nuclei.

Four representative lenses are shown for the wild-type (A-D) and cryaa null lines (G-J) at 3 dpf, and two representative lenses are shown at 4 dpf (E-F; K-L). Most images were taken at 200X total magnification, with some taken at 100X to capture more lens cell nuclei in one focal plane. The retina is oriented to the left in each image, with the cornea to the right. The four images at 3 dpf for each genotype demonstrate the range of phenotypes found, with the top left panel the most normal and bottom right the most abnormal. The rectangle in panel A highlights one of two regions of flattened, extended fiber cell nuclei at the retinal side of the lens, separated by a nucleus-free zone at *. Arrows indicate details described in the results section. Concentric circles were used to measure the average pixel density of DAPI staining across the lens (see M as an example). While some cryaa null lenses showed higher DAPI intensity in inner areas of the lens at 3 dpf (N), these differences were not statistically significant (Mann–Whitney U test).