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| Figure 3: Wurst-mediated airway clearance is essential for developmental progress Images show bright-field microscopy of living embryos at stage 17. Red dashes indicate air-filled, blue dashes liquid-filled airways. (A) Wild-type embryos undergo airway liquid-clearance and air-filling (B) Tracheal specific RNAi-mediated wurst knock-down resulted in severe air-filling defects (C) In contrast, posterior spiracles (respiratory openings) specific RNAi-mediated wurst knock-down did not lead to air-filling defects. (D) Histogram indicates survival in percentage of animals throughout development AEL. In contrast to wild-type, the tracheal specific RNAi-mediated wurst knock-down is lethal to early larvae. The RNAi-mediated wurst knock-down in posterior spiracles is not lethal, when compared to wild-type. Values in percentage are indicated in green, red and blue. Tested animals: wild-type n=300; dppG4>UAS-wurst RNAi n=248; btlG4>UAS-wurstRNAi n=492. (E,F) Images display wild-type (E) and tracheal specific wurstRNAi knock-down (F) larvae about 96 hours AEL. Black bars indicate 500μm. Wild-type, which reaches the final larval stage, shows characteristic darkening and evagination of posterior spiracles. In contrast, the development of RNAi-wurst knock-down larvae is arrested. The body size is smaller, when compared to wild-type, and darkening of the posterior spiracles is not observed in the wurst knock-down mutants. |
