Figure 1

unc-2 mutations suppress SNB-1::GFP defects in nid-1 . (A) In wild type animals synaptic vesicles accumulated in evenly spaced puncta (arrow) with smooth morphology (arrowhead). Cell bodies (asterisks) are also visible. Scale bar equals 10 μm. (B) Animals lacking nidogen accumulated synaptic vesicles in elongated (arrow) puncta. Diffuse GFP was often present in regions between puncta (arrowhead). (C) The ju493 mutation suppressed the large aggregations of SNB-1::GFP seen in nid-1 mutants. (D, E) Mutations in unc-2 (D - ju493, E - e55) resulted in slightly larger puncta, but the morphology and distribution were more similar to wild type than nid-1, even when nid-1 was absent (F). (G) unc-13(s69) animals had a slight decrease in the number of puncta, but the morphology was not grossly affected. (H) In the nid-1(cg119);unc-13(s69) double mutants puncta were elongated similar to nid-1 single mutants. (I, J) We quantified puncta area (K) and circularity (L) for each analyzed genotype and plotted them as mean (circle) with the 5 to 95% confidence interval (whiskers). (K) A cartoon of the genomic region of unc-2 with the position of alleles used indicated. Exon/introns are to scale, except for dashed lines, which indicate larger introns. The e55 allele is a G > A nucleotide change in exon 9 that results in Q571 to stop [Wormbase: CE42155]. The ju493 deletion removes a large part of the coding segment, corresponding to the exons encoding AA144-1888. All animals in these micrographs are young adults (1 to 2 days post 4th larval stage (L4)).