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Fig. 8 | BMC Biology

Fig. 8

From: Characterization of a thalamic nucleus mediating habenula responses to changes in ambient illumination

Fig. 8

GtACR1 expression in the thalamus disrupts habenula response to light ON and OFF. a A 6-day-old fish expressing GtACR1-eYFP under the control of the GAL4s1020t driver. GtACR1-expressing cells in the anterior thalamus (colored orange-purple) are indicated by the yellow arrowheads. Puncta of GtACR1-eYFP are visible. There is a low level of GCaMP6f expression, shown in green. The anterior margin of the thalamus is indicated by the dashed line. b A more dorsal focal plane, with habenula afferents labeled by the sqKR11Et line (magenta). GtACR1-eYFP puncta are indicated by the arrowheads. The asterisks indicate autofluorescent pigment cells. The habenulae are outlined. c–k Comparison of dorsal left habenula neuropil response to pulses of blue light in controls and fish expressing GtACR1 in the thalamus. c, d Response in the neuropil of control (c; n = 7) and GtACR1-expressing siblings (d; n = 11). Blue represents fast ON, cyan represents slow ON, whereas magenta represents OFF response. e, f The average of the colored pixels from c and d, respectively. Shaded areas show 95% confidence intervals. g, h Boxplots show the distribution of percentage of neuropil pixels showing a response to light ON or OFF in fish expressing GtACR1 (h) or control siblings (g). Each circle is one fish and lines join data points from the same fish. P values and test statistic (U) were obtained using Mann–Whitney U test between the distribution of pixels in control and GtACR1 fish of the same response class. i, j Histograms showing neuropil response to light ON and OFF in individual fish expressing GtACR1 (j) and control siblings (i). There is a leftward shift in the distribution for response to light ON in GtACR1 fish. k Interpolations of the histograms in panels i–j using a smoothing spline fit to show the overall distribution per category. Pa pallium, Th thalamus, hc habenula commissure, rHb right habenula, lHb left habenula, a anterior, p posterior

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