Fig. 5

DSCAM overexpression decreases the branching and complexity of tectal neuron dendritic arbors. a Sample tectal neurons expressing TurboRFP or co-expressing TurboRFP and DSCAM-GFP plasmids at stage 45, and 24 and 48 h after initial imaging (arrows point to axons; yellow arrowheads point to neurites extending from soma). b-d The number of branches and total dendrite arbor length were measured for tectal neurons at stage 45, 48 h after plasmid transfection. Note that neurons overexpressing DSCAM had similar number of branches and total dendrite arbor length at the initial imaging time point but failed to increase their number of branches and their total dendrite arbor length at the rate of TurboRFP-only expressing controls. e, f Sholl analysis revealed a reduction in distal dendrite branches in neurons overexpressing DSCAM 48 h after initial imaging. g Note that while dendrites failed to branch, the length of the primary dendrite of neurons overexpressing DSCAM was significantly higher than controls. TurboRFP only (n = 22 neurons, one neuron per tadpole) or DSCAM + TurboRFP (n = 20 neurons, one neuron per tadpole) Comparisons are by Student’s-t-test. Error bars indicate mean ± SEM. * p ≤ 0.05, ** p ≤ 0.005, *** p ≤ 0.001. Scale bars: 20 μm in (a)