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Fig. 5
Microtubule reorganization at the vegetal cortex is affected in hecate mutants.
(A-F) Cortical microtubule network at the vegetal pole in wild-type (A) and hec mutant (B-F) embryos at 20 mpf. Microtubules appear oriented in the same direction and bundled in wild-type embryos (A). The extent of co-orientation and bundling is greatly reduced in hec mutant embryos (B), where microtubules form multiple aster-like structures which can have a well focused-center (C,D) or can exhibit a central microtubule-free zone (E,F) and often overlap (F) or interdigitate (D). The relatively unbundled microtubule arrangement shown in (B) also corresponds to a sector of a large aster-like structure emanating from a not shown central core. Up to 6 aster-like structures were observed in the vegetal cortex of a single embryo. G,H) Cortex in mediolateral regions shows a loose and apparently random network of microtubules which appears similar in both wild-type (G) and hec mutant (H) embryos (n = 8 for wild-type and mutants). All images are z-axis projections of confocal image stages. The phenotype was fully (100%) penetrant according to the two main categories (wild-type, aligned and bundled microtubules; mutant, radialy oriented and unbundled microtubules, with 10 wt and 25 hec mutant embryos imaged. Magnification bar in (H) corresponds to 40 µm for all panels.